Powers
by AccioVoldemortsNose
Summary: After Gwendolyn Powers is promoted, she joins the higher ranks of SHIELD to fight against a new threat to the planet's saftey and deals with odd feelings for a certain Captain.
1. Chapter One

**Hello Avengers fans! As said in a lot of other fics, there aren't a lot of Steve/OC stories and seeing as I'm totally in love with Steve, I decided to write one the day I saw the movie the day it came out, which is also the day the Avengers destroyed my life.**

**So anyway, I hope you enjoy and I apologize for the lack of Steve for the first couple chapters.**

* * *

**Chapter One**

For the first time in her life, Gwendolyn Powers was late. She wasn't terribly late, but she was always early and in the ten minutes that she was behind she considered herself late. Horribly late.

Gwen's flight for New York was to leave at one and it was already quarter to. Seeing as this was a flight on a private jet, there shouldn't have been much of a rush, but she was still panicking. Gwen never slept through her alarm.

Gwen hurried into her silver camero, which had been a gift of course. She never bought anything for herself seeing as she saw no need to waste her money on things she didn't need. After setting her styrofoam cup filled with coffee in a cup holder, she buckled her seatbelt and started up the car. The engine purred as it came to life and she put the car in reverse.

She merely glanced at the review mirror as she backed up and once she was out of her driveway, she put the car in drive and took off down the street.

Not only was it not like Gwen to be late, but she never went over the speed limit. But seeing as she had already done one of these things, she might as well do the other. Several cars honked their horns at Gwen as she sped through the city of Chicago in hopes that the jet wasn't going to take off without her.

After taking getting off the highway and eventually taking a turn down a dirt road which had been labeled "DEAD END," she parked the car under the leaves of a supposedly broken tree. She got out and grabbed the suitcase she had placed in the trunk of her car in case she was running late in the morning. She hadn't thought she would, but was now glad she had already done so. She slung her other bag over her shoulder and carried the suitcase by the side handle.

Gwen followed a path of rocks, all of which were in the shape of an shield. She wasn't sure how long it was, but she was sure that she was glad she wore jeans because branches kept getting caught on her pant legs.

At last, the private strip came into view and Gwen gave a sigh of relief when she saw that the jet was still there.

She stumbled out of the woods and as she got closer to the jet, two men standing near it wearing black suits and sunglasses noticed her and hurried over.

"You're late, Agent Powers," said one of them with a bald head and a square jaw.

"You don't think I know that, Agent Thorn?" she snapped as he took her suitcase.

The other man, who had long black hair pulled into a ponytail at the back of his head, gave a bark of a laugh.

"Looks like Powers is crabby today," he mocked. "We'll have to take care of that."

Gwen shot the man a glare. "By what means, Agent Maxwell?"

"Well, Mr. Stark has generously sent you another gift and it is waiting for you on the jet."

"I told him to stop with the camero," muttered Gwen irritably under her breath. She already had a pounding headache. She didn't need Tony to make it worse.

She followed the two men and they led her into the jet. The interior looked almost like some sort of five star hotel lobby. On the left and right were one row of chairs on both sides with the backs connected to the walls of the jet. On the far end was a little bar in which drinks were held.

Gwen saw that there was a box wrapped in gold paper and a red bow sitting in one of the seats. She approached it and opened it to reveal a new phone. Leave it to Tony to replace the phone that she had accidently run over with her car. But that was another story which involved grocery bags and fustration.

Agent Thorn took her suitcase and place it in one of the seats. No other agents were on the plane and the pilot and the co-pilot were already in the cockpit, waiting for everything to be ready for take-off. Gwen glanced at her watch and saw it was five past one. They were late.

Agent Maxwell took a seat next to the suitcase and Agent Thorn took the next one. Gwen sat down in a seat across from them. The seats were big and comfortable and made of black leather. There was enough space between Gwen and the agents that she could stretch out her legs without being in contact with them. She pulled her curly blonde hair over her left shoulder and rested her head back on the seat. Her headache was getting worse by the minute and she hadn't had time to take anything for it.

After reaching into her bag, Gwen pulled out one Excedrin and grabbed a water bottle from the bar. She quickly swallowed the pill and sat back down. Gwen closed her eyes as she felt the plane start moving forward, slow at first and then picking up speed. She felt the wheels of the plane lift off from the ground and yawned when her ears got plugged up from the pressure.

Due to the technology of the plane, they were in the air in half the time it would take a commercial plane. Gwen focused on trying to sleep, even though she was not a fan of naps. But at least she wouldn't feel the pouding in her head.

The Excedrin wasn't kicking in fast enough for Gwen and no sleep seemed to be coming. So instead, she opened her eyes and saw Agent Thorn reading a paper and Agent Maxwell staring at her.

"What do you want, Maxwell?" she asked with a groan.

He smiled. "Did you have a bad dream last night?"

Leave it to Agent Maxwell to say something like that. He never directly answered her questions. Actually, his answers were normally questions themsevles. Apparently before joining SHIELD, Agent Maxwell had been a psychiatrist. He therefore used his knowledge to constantly be finding out more information about Gwen, who was very reluctant to share anything. No one needed to know about her past. _No one_.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," answered Gwen after a moment of silence. "Why do you care?"

"I could help you," said Agent Maxwell, shrugging.

"I don't need help."

"You're headaches are getting worse."

"It's none of your business."

"You should see a doctor."

"I don't need to!"

Gwen was getting fustrated. She didn't need this. She just wanted to get to New York, get to Stark Tower, and find out what she needed to do from there.

"Once again," said Agent Thorn as if sensing there was a need for a different subject, "we are sorry about the loss of Agent Coulson. He was a friend to us all."

Gwen bit her lip to stop herself from snapping back, but it wasn't Agent Thorn's fault. Agent Phil Coulson had been her best friend and no one seemed to understand this. Although there was nothing romantic between the two, both had understood each other. They had been very good friends. Yet there had been something intriguing about Coulson and Gwen didn't know what it exactly was.

"Yes, well, he died a hero," answered Gwen quickly. "It's just hard that I'm taking over his postion now."

"Is that what your dream was about?" asked Agent Maxwell. He leaned forward and propped his elbows up on his knees.

Gwen shot him a glare. "Why are you so interested in my dream?"

"Ah," he mused. "So you admit you had a dream."

Fustrated, Gwen closed her eyes again.

"It might help to talk about it."

"I. Don't. Want. To," she hissed through clenched teeth.

Gwen opened her eyes again to see Agent Thorn looking back and forth at the man and woman with worried eyes. Gwen figured that he remembered the last time an argument between her and Agent Maxwell got out of hand. It had been pretty messy and was hard to cover up from the rest of SHIELD. Gwen hadn't wanted them knowing anything more than they needed too.

"Do you feel, oh I don't know, guilty about Agent Coulson's death?"

Gwen closed her eyes again and attempted to ignore him.

"Is it because you told Fury you were sick so that you didn't have to go to New York when he called you in all those months ago?"

At this, Gwen snapped her eyes open and looked directly at the smiling Agent Maxwell.

"How do you know about that?" she asked quietly. She barely even noticed Agent Thorn getting up and heading to the bar for a drink of something.

"More importantly, why did you tell him you were sick?" asked Agent Maxwell.

"But how do you know?" repeated Gwen. "You were investigating an atmospheric disturbance in San Diego. No one else knew."

"I know many things, Gwendolyn Powers. But what I don't know is why you stayed in Chicago."

Realizing that Agent Maxwell had been snooping around SHIELD's database, she crossed her arms and sat back.

"It is not your business," said Gwen.

"You were in the labs, Powers," continued Agent Maxwell. "I saw the security footage."

"What are you doing watching those?"

"Never mind that. But what were you doing in those labs?"

"None of your business."

Agent Maxwell's smile grew. "Those are SHIELD labs. Seeing as we're all agents for SHIELD, whatever you were doing is _all_ of our business."

"I'm not telling you."

"Then I won't have any guilt when I tell Fury that you were most certainly _not_ sick when he could've used you and those martial arts skills of yours."

Gwen narrowed her eyes. "That's blackmail."

"You think I don't know that?"

"I think you know more than you should."

"I do believe that this is a bad time for this," interupted Agent Thorn, turning around from the bar. "We don't want another accident."

Gwen realized that her head was pounding. It was even worse than when she got on the plane.

Agent Maxwell sat back, his smile still streched across his face. It sickened Gwen. She wanted to smack it right off. She was thankful, though, that Agent Thorn had stepped in. She could keep going with Agent Maxwell just because she was too stubborn and always wanted to win an argument. And to also always have the last word.

So Gwen sat back as Agent Thorn resumed his seat and went back to his newspaper. Agent Maxwell, however, continued to smile at Gwen until she gave up and took out her new phone so she didn't have to see his face anymore.


	2. Chapter Two

**I thought I might as well post this once I was done :)**

**yesiamweird: Thank you!**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

The plane landed easily and Gwen got out of her seat. She slung her bag on her shoulder again and allowed Agent Thorn to carry her suitcase once more.

Gwen exited the jet and saw a nice looking car already waiting for her on the landing strip. There was a familiar man standing by it, or really leaning on it casually, and Gwen felt even more irritated.

"What's up, buttercup?" asked Tony Stark as Gwen and Agent Thorn approached.

Tony's dark hair was styled and he was wearing a gray suit and darkened sunglasses, despite the setting sun.

"I told you to stop calling me that," muttered Gwen as Tony opened the trunk and let Agent Thorn place the suitcase inside.

"Thank you, Agent," said Tony. "Though I must say people really need to come up with better first names."

"That's not his real name," said Gwen as she rubbed her temples.

"And are you sure of that?"

Tony came around the passenger side of the red vehicle and Gwen followed.

He opened the door. "In you go, Gwen."

"I told you to stop calling me that, too."

"Haven't you learned I don't listen to you?"

Scowling, Gwen ducked into the car and a new car smell filled her nose. She savored the smell as when Tony got into the driver's seat, her irritation returned.

"You better stop being Miss Grumpy before we get there," said Tony as he started up the car and put it in drive. "Pepper's got a big meal planned out."

"A meal you didn't help her with?" asked Gwen.

"Well, she does have JARVIS."

"Typical."

Tony glanced over at Gwen for a moment as the lights of the private strip disappeared behind them.

"You seem even crankier today, buttercup."

Gwen signed. "I'm tired."

"Oh please," said Tony rolling his eyes. "If Gwendolyn Powers is tired then I'm a llama."

Gwen suppressed a smile as the lights of New York came into view, the brightest being Stark Tower.

"Did Fury tell you when I'm to be there tomorrow?" inquired Gwen.

"You'll be there when you'll be there," answered Tony with a wave of his hand.

"But I'm sure Fury has orders-"

"Buttercup, you need to stop worrying. If it makes you feel any better, Banner will be at dinner."

Gwen actually did feel a bit better that Bruce Banner would be there. While everyone else cowered in fear of him and his "anger problems," Gwen took the initiative to become friends with the doctor. Although she did not seem him often, they kept in contact through phone calls, texts, and emails.

"As long as he doesn't smash," said Gwen.

Tony smiled. "Gwenie's back."

"Don't call me that either."

* * *

"JARVIS!" exclaimed Tony as he and Gwen entered the elevator inside Stark Tower. "Take us up to the penthouse."

"Yes, Mr. Stark," replied the cool voice of JARVIS. "It is good to see you again, Miss Powers."

"Same here, JARVIS," she answered, realizing too late that she could not actually see JARVIS.

The elevator began its ascent and Tony slipped his hands in his pants pockets.

"Wait until you see what Banner and I have been working on," said Tony with a mischievous smirk.

"It can't be any good," said Gwen with a sigh. "I don't trust you two together."

"But you don't really trust us apart either, do you?"

"No, not really."

The elevator finally came to a halt and the silver doors slid open to reveal the penthouse. It had been completely repaired after the near-apocalyptic events that had occurred several months before.

Outside, Gwen saw that the sun had completely set and there were already some stars in the sky. She wondered how marvelous it was to live in place like this, though, Tony and Pepper Potts only lived here about half the time.

"Gwendolyn!"

Gwen turned to see Pepper hurrying from the kitchen space to where they had stepped out of the elevator, her orange hair flying behind her.

Pepper wrapped Gwen up in a welcoming hug and after a moment moved back.

"The place looks nice, Pepper," stated Gwen.

"We had some help," she said moving back to the kitchen.

"I don't even get a hello?" asked Tony with mock offense.

"You aren't the guest, Tony," Pepper retorted.

"And she's not the only one of those."

Gwen looked at the sound of the voice and found Bruce Banner sitting at the table, glasses perched upon his nose. There were papers laying around on the table and Tony moved forward to start cleaning them up.

"It's nice to see you again, doctor," said Gwen.

She moved towards Bruce, who had stood up, and shook his hand. She pulled out the chair next to him and sat down.

"Tony says you're working on something," stated Gwen.

"They're always working on something," answered Pepper. Her eye roll was audible.

"It was Stark's idea, really," added Bruce as he removed his glasses.

"Nah, I'm not going to take all the credit..." Tony trailed off.

"How about twelve percent?" asked Pepper.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?"

Tony finished cleaning up the papers and moved them onto a counter. The mahogany table was now fully visible and Pepper began placing dishes down.

"Do you need any help with that?" asked Gwen beginning to stand up.

"No, no, no," said Pepper. "If anyone's going to help, it'll be Tony."

The genius man gave an exasperated sigh and helped his girlfriend set the table.

"Would you mind showing me what you're working on?" asked Gwen.

She saw Pepper sigh as she added the salt and pepper to table and took her seat across from Gwen.

"I honestly think it's a waste of time," said the woman.

"It is_ not_," replied Tony. He put his plate down across from Bruce. "I'll show you."

Tony went over to the kitchen counter and picked up a small device with a large red button.

"Watch," he commanded as he pointed out the windows. Gwen watched him push the button and turned her attention to the window.

Outside was a spotlight shining into the night sky. But it wasn't just a light. It was a picture of the face of Tony's Iron Man helmet. It was almost like the Batman symbol.

"You made some sort of 'superhero symbol?'" asked Gwen with a laugh.

"If anyone is in trouble, they can just push the button," said Tony. "Then I can rush out and save the day."

"He wants to make one for me," said Bruce as Tony turned off the light with another push of the button. "But I don't think I need one."

"No one needs one," said Pepper.

"But how is it going to work?" asked Gwen. "I mean, are people going to have to run up here to the penthouse to push the button?"

"Nope," answered Tony as he sat down at the table. "Once it's perfected, it will be installed at every traffic light. Then it'll shine out and everything."

Gwen was quiet in thought for a moment. "But what if you can't see it?"

"That's why I said we're 'working' on it. I'm adding some music to it. AC/DC doesn't sound too bad."

Pepper gave another sigh.

"Wait," said Gwen, setting down her fork and leaning back. "You mean to tell me that when people push this button, it will shine a bright light in the sky and play AC/DC? How loud will this music be?"

"Loud enough for New York City to hear," said Tony as if this was nothing.

"Tony, if it's that loud and people can just go up to traffic lights and push it, they'll just do it as a prank and wake the city up."

"That's exactly what I told him," agreed Bruce. "We might as well just make it mandatory that each household has one."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Those are just minor complications."

"Why don't you just use a pager?" suggested Gwen. "Like, these people can push the button, like you want, but instead of the light and the music, a pager goes off."

"Best idea I've heard all day," said Pepper with a smile.

"Yes," said Tony who seemed annoyed, "but my face doesn't show up in the sky if I do that."

"That's not your real face," argued Gwen. "It's a mask."

"It's not a mask," replied Tony. "It's a _helmet_."

"Whatever, Tony."

"So," said Pepper to change the subject, "how is the base in Chicago?"

"Not as exciting," Gwen answered. "We generally don't get mythical gods attacking our city."

"Well, then you should've never left Stark Industries," retorted Tony.

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Tony, you told me to join SHIELD. What did you say, that it'd be 'good for me'?"

"I only said that because they said they'd kidnap you if you didn't leave working for me."

"I'm sure. Anyway, I'm glad to be leaving Chicago. I just didn't fit in there. Nobody understood me like you guys."

"Aw, would you look at that," said Tony with a smirk on his face, "she likes us."

"I didn't say I _liked _you Tony," Gwen pointed out. "It's just that no one in Chicago understood my headaches. Or really anything. I didn't want to tell them."

"Oh, speaking of your headaches," said Bruce, "we've got a new batch of medication for you. Hopefully it'll last longer than the last one."

"Thanks, Doctor," answered Gwen. "I appreciate it."

After dinner, Bruce left for wherever it was he was living and Pepper showed Gwen to the guest bedroom. It was a nice sized room with white walls and a white bed. Gwen placed her suitcase on the dresser and Pepper left to do whatever she did with Tony at night. Gwen did not want to know what it was, so she unzipped her suitcase and took out some clothes and placed them in the dresser.

By the time her suitcase was empty, Gwen realized that her headache had finally gone away. She joked in her head that the source of it was Agent Maxwell. But it did make her begin to wonder why he wanted to know what she was doing the Chicago SHIELD labs. Of course, she wasn't about to tell someone other than Tony and Bruce that she had actually been working on replicating the medication they made her as she was doing it unauthorized and she knew that if Fury found out about her headaches, he'd require her to go through tests. Which involved needles. Gwen did _not_ like needles.

Gwen changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants and turned on the television.

"JARVIS?" she asked.

"Yes, Agent Powers?"

"Can you find me a good news channel to watch?"

"Of course."

The television flipped through the channels at a record speed until it landed on a local news show.

"A plane crash occured only one hour ago which is said to have killed three people," came the voice of an anchorman, "It was a private jet that was leaving New York for Chicago. Those killed are the pilot, Charles Johnson, the co-pilot, Alan Shilling, and the only passanger, identified as James Thorn."

Gwen froze and her heart stopped in her chest. Was it possible another jet was leaving New York for Chicago which contained a passanger with the same name as Agent Thorn? Not likely. But what about Agent Maxwell? Did he escape? Was he even on the plane?

But this meant Agent Thorn was dead. He was _dead_. He had been in the hightest position in Chicago. Agent Thorn was a good man who did nothing wrong. And now he was dead.

Gwen quickly turned off the television as if it was deadly and hopped into bed, hoping she wasn't going to have anymore dreams like the previous night about a man with a hat that looked like a ram's head.


	3. Chapter Three

**Wow, I'm surprised people are actually reading this!**

**amrawo: Thank you!**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

Gwen awoke early the next morning. The sun was shining through the open drapes and landed on her body. Groaning from exhaustion, she stretched and eventually swung her legs off the bed.

The first thing Gwen did was she closed the drapes. She could already tell she had a headache and didn't need the light to hurt her head anymore.

Then the events of the previous day came back to her and she remembered that Agent Thorn was dead, leaving his wife widowed and his sixteen year old son fatherless. Feeling down, she slumped into the kitchen where Pepper and Tony were eating breakfast at the table.

"It's such a shame," said Pepper. "James was a good man."

"Why did it have to be my jet though?" asked Tony irritably. He turned and saw Gwen making her way into the kitchen. "Morning."

"Morning," answered Gwen. "So you heard about the plane crash?"

"Heard about it?" scoffed Tony. "It's everywhere. Look."

He slid the newspaper over to Gwen who picked it up.

_JET CRASHES; TONY STARK TO BLAME?_

_Last night a private jet crashed, killing pilot Charles Johnson, 45, co-pilot Alan Shilling, 30, and passenger James Thorn, 49. The cause of the crash is still unknown and is being investigated by the NYPD._

_The plane went down just outside of New York City and landed in an empty field after what police say was done by pilot Johnson in an attempt to steer clear of civillians._

_However, police say they will be investigating their first suspect who is none other than billionaire Tony Stark. Many know Stark as the famous, "Iron Man" and for his past acts of so called heroics. Most recently he teamed up with other "heroes" such as the World War II hero "Captain America" who was frozen for the past seventy years. _

_The jet belonged to Stark and therefore has risen a slight panic for anything else of his, including Stark Tower which resides in New York. There is no evidence, however, that Stark was involved with the crash._

"Wait," said Gwen stretching out the word. "Are they actually trying to put the blame on you?"

Tony nodded.

"But that's ridiculous!"

"We know that," said Pepper, taking a sip of coffee. "Why don't you sit down?"

Gwen followed that suggestion and took a piece of toast sitting on a plate.

"I just don't understand," said Gwen. "Why would someone want to frame you for it?"

"Well obviously the guy who made the plane crash is the one who wants me to be blamed," answered Tony. He sounded tired and _very _fustrated.

"D'you think it was someone who wanted Agent Thorn dead?" suggested Gwen.

"Or maybe," wondered Pepper, "it was someone who wanted _you_ dead."

Gwen's mouth hung open in surprise. "Me? Why would someone want me dead?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe someone rigged the plane and the pilot realized it and crashed it. If you were on the plane then you would've died and Tony would've been blamed."

"But that's insane!" Gwen threw her arms up in exasperation. "Besides, where was Agent Maxwell?"

"That weird psycho guy?" asked Tony.

"He's a _psychiatrist_," corrected Pepper.

"Same thing."

"Anyway," continued Gwen. "What about him? Shouldn't he have been on the plane?"

"I'm sure that he decided to stay in New York," said Pepper.

"But doesn't it sound fishy to you?"

"Gwenie," sighed Tony, ignoring a glare sent by Gwen, "you need to stop watching all these spy movies. I'm not a big fan of the guy either, but it just doesn't fit."

"Besides," added Pepper, "you've never liked Agent Maxwell."

"So you think I just want to get him in trouble?" asked Gwen, narrowing her eyes.

"I'm just saying that you already don't like the guy."

Gwen sighed and put her face in her hands.

"Cheer up, Buttercup," said Tony, slapping the twenty-four year old woman on the back. "At least you get to see Fury today."

"Oh because that's the best thing I could ever ask for."

"Got that right." Tony leaned in close. "Did you know he only has one eye?"

Gwen stared at him with an expression that read "Are you kidding me?"

"Besides, he might, uh, have something to talk to you about."

"What?" asked Gwen.

"Well, he sort of, found out about what Banner and I were doing..."

Gwen slowly looked over at Tony. "You mean to tell me that Fury knows about the medication?"

"Uh, sort of. And the headaches."

"You told him?"

Tony looked slightly fearful for his life. "No, no, no! Well maybe...I blame Rodgers!"

"Tony..." said Pepper. "Give the guy a break. He doesn't even know what half the things are in this room."

"Okay, so maybe Rodgers didn't tell. He didn't know actually, but I seriously did _not_ tell Fury. Neither did Banner."

"Then who did?" asked Gwen.

"We don't know."

Gwen sighed and Tony stood up.

"I should probably get ready," he said. "I _am_ the one escorting you."

"He just wants to look good for his boyfriend," teased Pepper who seemed to be supressing a smile.

"Hey!" called Tony as he made his way for the bathroom. "Banner is _not_ my boyfriend."

"Sure, sure."

Once Tony was in the bathroom and the sound of a shower running was heard, Pepper turned to Gwen.

"Do you have another headache?"

Gwen looked up at Pepper. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry we don't have the medication here. I'm sure Bruce will give it to you when you're on the hellicarrier."

There was a moment of silence.

"I get to go on the hellicarrier?" asked Gwen.

"Uh, yeah?" said Pepper. "I thought Tony told you."

"No, he didn't."

"He probably didn't want to get you all worked up yesterday."

Gwen had never been on the hellicarrier before. For months she so desperately wanted to, but there was no need. Therefore, Gwen couldn't help but wonder why they'd be there on this particular day.

"You should probably get ready," suggested Pepper. "Tony had said Fury wanted you there at seven."

"What time is it now?"

"Half past nine."

"WHAT!"

* * *

Gwen was all set an hour and a half later, dressed in a purple tank top and a black leather jacket, yet another present from Tony. She realized that he always seemed to be giving her presents when he did something stupid. He had gotten the car for her after he forced her to go work for SHIELD and most recently, he had gotten her the new phone probably because he knew how angry she'd be upon learning that Fury knew about her headaches.

The reason she didn't want him to know was because Fury would require her to go through tests. She had gone through enough tests in her life. And if Fury found out, he'd have different tests for her. And then he'd probably find out about the accident. She'd probably be locked away forever if that happened.

Gwen and Tony left Stark Tower and entered Tony's new red car after both were good to go. The duo remained quiet as they drove to a hidden landing pad for Stark helicopters. Once there, they exited the car and climbed on board the helicopter, which was sort of a cross between a helicopter and a plane.

"Do you know how late we are?" asked Gwen as she took a seat.

Tony sat down next to her. "We are not late, we're just fashionably not on time."

"Pepper told me."

"Don't worry, I'll take the blame."

Gwen was quiet for a moment as she watched Tony take out his own phone and began typing away.

"Tony?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

"Why didn't you tell me what time we were to be on the hellicarrier?"

"Because, Buttercup," he said, pocketing the phone, "you needed sleep. You looked terrible."

"How bad?"

"Like the last time." Tony thought for a moment. "Well, not _as_ bad, but pretty bad."

Gwen leaned back in her seat. Maybe taking this position in New York wasn't such a great idea after all.

* * *

After having a safe landing on the hellicarrier, Gwen and Tony exited the helicopter. Already waiting for them was a woman with red hair.

"Nice to see you, Agent Powers, Mr. Stark."

She held out her hand as the two stepped onto the hellicarrier.

Gwen shook it first. "Same here, Natasha."

Natasha smiled and did not shake Tony's hand. Gwen wondered if it was because she did not wish to shake his hand, or also thought along with the NYPD that Tony had caused the jet crash.

"Follow me," commanded Natasha.

Gwen and Tony followed her throughout the hellicarrier. They passed many different agents, all of which said hello to Gwen. None of them looked too happy with Tony.

At last, they made it to the command center and standing in the front was a man in a black trench coat and a black eye patch.

He spoke without turning around.

"Welcome back, Agent Powers," said Fury. He finally turned around and approached the duo, holding out his hand.

Gwen shook it. "Thank you, Director Fury.

He turned towards a woman with raven hair which was pulled into a bun. "Agent Hill?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Fetch Rodgers. He'll be in the gym."

"Yes, sir."

Maria Hill nodded at Gwen as she left the command center.

"Powers, as you know, Phil Coulson's death was a tragedy," began Fury. "I am very pleased that you agreed to take his position."

Fury began pacing in front of them, his hands behind his back.

"However, I do not understand why you thought it was okay to hide information about yourself from SHIELD, and most importantly, the people you work with."

"Sir, I-"

"It is imperative that we monitor every bit of supernatural disturbance, but how can we do that if our own agents are covering up their problems."

"It's just-"

"And I _do not _appreciate the fact that you had two other people working behind SHIELD's back to help you."

"Just listen to me, sir," said Gwen with as much confidence as she could muster. "If anyone's to blame, it's me. Tony and Doctor Banner were only trying to help me."

Fury stopped pacing and stood in front of Gwen. "But they were still fully aware of what they were doing, were they not?"

"If I may cut in here," said Tony, walking past Fury, "I would like to say that both Banner and I _were_ fully aware of what we were doing. And we do not regret helping Agent Powers."

Fury frowned. "Agent Maxwell?"

The man that should've been on the jet the previous night came forward with a clipboard in his hands. Gwen clenched her teeth at the sight of him.

Agent Maxwell smiled. "Yes, sir?"

"Give me those medical records I had asked you for."

"Right here, sir." Agent Maxwell handed over the clipboard.

Fury looked down at the papers and then back at Gwen.

"It says here," he said, "that you were admitted to a specialized hospital when you were six years of age. You were treated for reoccuring head pains."

Gwen stared at Agent Maxwell, who was wearing his sly smile, in disbelief. She was certain she had gotten rid of those files. How in the world did he get his filthy paws on them?

"Is this true, Agent Powers?" asked Fury when Gwen did not respond.

Gwen turned back to the man. "Yes, sir."

"Then why isn't this in SHIELD's database?"

"Because I didn't want it to be there."

"Agent Powers, I'm going to have to-"

He stopped talking and looked up. Gwen turned around to see Agent Hill coming back, followed by a tall, muscular man with nicely styled blonde hair and wearing a brown jacket with a button down shirt.

"You need to see me, Fury?" he asked.

"Yes. Captain Rodgers, this is Agent Gwendolyn Powers." Fury motioned to Gwen. Captain Rodgers looked at her and his cheeks immediately turned red as if he was embarrassed of being in the same room with her.

"Agent Powers," continued Fury, "this is Captain Steve Rodgers."

Gwen moved forward first and put out her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Captain."

Steve shook her hand, but seemed to want to look anywhere but her face.

"Uh, it's uh, nice to meet you too," he answered nervously.

"The Capsicle's always a gentleman," came Tony's voice from behind them all. "What does this screen do?"

They all turned to look at Tony who was at a screen and sliding things around on it.

"Mr. Stark," said Fury, "I'm gonna have to ask you to step away from the monitor."

Tony backed up. "Hey, I'm just curious."

"Yeah, well curiousity killed the cat."

Tony raised his hands up in the air as if he was about to be arrested and backed away farther.

Fury turned back to Gwen and Steve, who was looking at his feet.

"Anyway, Captain, Agent Powers will be taking the place of Agent Coulson."

There was a crash and they all turned to see Tony picking up another monitor which now had a crack in it.

Fury rolled his eyes and turned to Gwen. "Now, as I was saying, I'm going to have to ask you to go through some tests."

"I don't need to," answered Gwen. "I'm fine."

"You suffer from head pains on a daily basis and have for all of your life. Now that we know, we can help you."

"The last time someone wanted to help me I ended up spending ten years in therapy," stated Gwen. She felt slightly embarrassed for saying this in front of Steve, who she had only just met.

"Trust me, Powers. We actually _can _help you."

"Don't you understand, Fury?" asked Gwen with rage building in her. "I don't _want _help! I just want this all forgotten about!"

There was silence for a moment before Fury spoke. Gwen felt as though he were examining her face. "Is there something else you're not telling me?"

Infuriated, Gwen turned on her heel and stomped out of the command center. It wasn't long before she heard footsteps behind her and turned expecting to see Tony, but saw Steve instead.

"I'm sorry about that," she said as he came up to her. "It's just been a rough past few days."

"No, it's fine," answered Steve. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Now it was Gwen's turn to blush. She looked down at her feet. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

Confused, Gwen reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Without turning the backlight on, she looked at her reflection on the empty screen. The whites of her green eyes were bloodshot and there were dark bags under her eyes. This hadn't happened since the accident.

Fearing for the safety of everyone on the hellicarrier, Gwen turned and took off down the hall, hoping to find Doctor Banner.


	4. Chapter Four

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* * *

**Chapter Four**

It was quiet in the labs as Bruce Banner stood behind a white counter. He was looking through a magnifying glass when he was forced to push up his falling glasses. Under the magnifying glass was a device which Tony had been working on, but seeing as he was not in the labs with Bruce, the doctor decided to go ahead and work on it.

He was just about to insert a microchip to the device when the door flew open and Gwen came bursting in. She looked absolutely terrible.

"Gwendolyn?" he asked. "What happened?"

"The medication," she said. "I need it now."

"Gwendolyn…"

"Now, Doctor!"

"Alright."

Bruce grabbed a pill container and handed it to Gwen. The only reason the medication was in pill form was because she refused to let it be injected into her system, even though it would work so much better that way.

Gwen snatched the container from Bruce and opened it. He handed her a bottle of water which she used to swallow the pill.

After finishing, Gwen wiped her mouth with her sleeve and took a deep breath.

"You almost lost it, didn't you?" asked Bruce quietly.

Gwen nodded. "It was just like last time. I was getting so angry."

"But you walked away, didn't you?"

She nodded again, but didn't say anything.

Bruce was the only person who could understand her pain. He could easily lose control too. However, Gwen was better at keeping herself under control and off the radar from SHIELD.

"I should just go back to Chicago," said Gwen at last.

"No, Gwendoyln." Bruce took his glasses off and placed them on the counter. He walked over to Gwen and put a hand on her shoulder.

"But I-"

"Gwendolyn, you stopped yourself from losing control," stated Bruce. "You can manage this."

"But last time I lost it, I hurt people."

"I know. But that's over now. You need to focus on the present."

Gwen looked up at the Doctor and smiled.

* * *

To most people, they wouldn't have known why in the world Steve hurried out of the command center when Gwen left, but Tony Stark did. It was so obvious to him.

Steve was not good with women and even worse with women he was interested in. And from what Tony saw, Steve looked the most awkward he had ever been when he was standing next to Gwen. So, naturally, Tony was already coming up with new nicknames for him and preparing to tease Gwen.

But what worried Tony was the way Gwen looked before she left. Fury had obviously seen the difference in her face. Actually, if someone didn't see the way she looked, they would have to be blind.

Once Gwen had stormed out of the command center, it seemed everyone could feel the energy she left behind. And that's when Tony realized that the accident almost repeated itself. And that worried him.

"You know, Fury," said Tony, striding up to the man, "there is such a thing called _privacy_."

"Are you hiding something from me, too, Mr. Stark?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "If I was, I wouldn't tell you. Duh."

Fury looked irritated and seemed it was best to just walk away. After one last look at the man, Tony left the command center and nearly ran straight into Steve.

"Watch it there, Cap," said Tony. "Don't want to mess that pretty face up for Gwen, do you?"

Steve's blank expression made Tony sigh.

"Never mind," said the genius. "Where did she go?"

"Down the hall," answered Steve, pointing in the direction in which Gwen left.

"Thanks, old man."

Tony walked past the solider and followed the hall. He was confident he knew where Gwen had gone. So, of course, when he approached the labs, he was not surprised to find the door open.

"Hey there, Buttercup," said Tony as he entered to find Bruce with his hand on Gwen's shoulder. The blonde turned around to look at Tony. He tried not to show any sign of fear at the sight of her face.

"I think I'll let you calling me that slide this time," she said.

"That's the spirit. Did you take the medication?"

She nodded.

"Good girl," said Tony.

"Might I suggest you stay here for the night, Gwen?" asked Bruce.

Gwen didn't look happy with it, which scared Tony, but she eventually nodded after a bit of thought.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea."

Bruce nodded and went back to his counter.

"Y'know Gwenie," said Tony, leaning casually against a wall, "no one can stop themselves from feeling angry."

"I know, it's just that I get so fustrated. I can't do anything about it."

She looked up at Tony.

"You seemed worried about me in the car yesterday," stated Gwen. "Did I look bad then?"

In truth, Tony _had_ been worried. She hadn't looked as bad as she did in the labs currently, but she had looked like it was starting to go there.

"A little," he answered, not wanting her to worry too much. "But I suppose you could've just been tired."

"I blame Agent Maxwell," Gwen groaned. "I think he contributes to it."

"What's he even doing here anyway?" asked Bruce. "I thought he was going back to Chicago."

"I have no idea," answered Gwen. "I just want him gone."

There was silence as the three of them were lost in thought. They all jumped when there was a knock on the door. They turned to see Clint Barton who was dressed in his sleeveless uniform.

"Agent Powers?" he asked looking straight at Gwen. "Can you come with me for a moment?"

"Sure, Clint," she answered.

Tony watched as Gwen moved towards the archer and began to make a connection with Agent Maxwell.

* * *

"What's up, Clint?" asked Gwen as she followed the assassin out the lab door.

"I wanted to show you something," he answered.

Gwen did not ask anything else and simply followed Clint through the halls. She kept her head down slightly in hopes that no one would see her face. She wondered for a moment why Clint didn't say anything about it. But he was never one to ask her questions. He normally just went with whatever she said.

At last they approached a door and Clint typed in a password on a screen nearby. He must've punched it in correctly for Gwen heard it unlock and Clint pulled the door open.

"Hurry," he said, ushering her in.

Gwen obeyed and stepped over the threshold, Clint right behind her. He sealed the door and typed in another password which seemed to lock the door.

The room was dark and in front of them was some metal stairs that had four steps. Clint went up them and Gwen followed. They walked along a metal walkway which was closed in by railings. On either side were large containers.

At last they reached the end of the walkway and they climbed down another four steps. Clint continued forward and suddenly took a left. Gwen quickly followed and nearly ran into Clint who had stopped. They were standing in front of a small group of three gray and rusty lockers.

"What are these doing here?" asked Gwen curiously. This wasn't the locker room, that was for sure.

Clint didn't answer and instead opened the middle locker. There was nothing inside but a cardboard box. Gwen could've sworn she could feel something inside it, but she wasn't sure what. Clint lifted it up and opened it to reveal a glowing blue cube.

"What is that?" asked Gwen.

"It's part of the tesseract," answered Clint, not taking his eyes off the cube. "And SHIELD's hiding it."

_Those hypocrites_, thought Gwen.

"But why are they hiding it?" she asked.

"I don't know," said Clint. "I saw someone go in here, but I didn't see who it was. I was able to get the password and eventually found this."

"But why are you showing _me?_"

"Because I knew that if I showed anyone else, they'd throw a huge fit."

That was very true, even Gwen knew it.

"But how did SHIELD keep a part of it?" she inquired.

"I don't know that either," said Clint. "But I suppose they want to use it to make some sort of weapon. Which leads me to the next reason why I showed you this." Clint closed the box and put it back in the locker. "I was hoping you could hack into SHIELD's database and see if you could find any weapon plans."

"Why don't we just take the cube?" suggested Gwen.

Clint shook his head. "If we do that, they'll know that someone found it. We need to be secret about this. So, can you do it?"

Gwen nodded. "Yes."

"And you can't tell Stark or Banner," added Clint as he closed the locker. "Don't tell _anyone_."

"Got it."

"Thanks. By the way, you look like you could use some sleep."

* * *

That evening Gwen found herself in a living quarters aboard the hellicarrier. Tony had Natasha find one for her so that Gwen did not have to come in contact with Fury. The room was small and completely white, but Gwen didn't mind. Though the color _was_ a bit too bright. There was also a bed and an ajoining bathroom.

The medication was already working by the night and when Gwen looked in the mirror in the bathroom, she noticed that the skin around her eyes was already back to normal. She wondered if this new and improved version of the medication would work fast and last long. But she could only hope.

Tony had gone back to Stark Tower, as he wanted to take the opportunity to show off the new Mark VIII. He then returned with some of Gwen's things so that she didn't have to sleep in her day clothes. He then left once more and told her he'd return in the morning.

While Gwen was lying in her bed, she couldn't help but let her mind wander back to the cube. What did SHIELD want with it? She could recall Tony telling her that they had been making weapons because of the whole "gods from another realm coming to the planet" thing. But that had been taken care of. What did they want with it now? And to just leave it in an old locker like that. Why wouldn't they have put it in a place with high security?

But unfortunately, Gwen did not have any answers.

* * *

"Father, I come to report on Loki."

A muscular man with blonde hair down to his shoulders approached an old man wearing armor.

"How is he doing, my son," said the old man.

"He still refuses to speak," said the other. There was a pause. "Father, are we going to keep Loki locked up for all eternity?"

"Thor, you must realize what your brother has done."

Thor shook his head. "He may have made mistakes, but he is still my brother. He is still your son."

Odin looked at his son. Thor was always going to defend Loki. There was no stopping it.

"Once he speaks and can explain to us why he caused the harm he did in Midgard, I may consider his release," replied Odin.

"Thank you, Father," answered Thor, though he did not smile. "I do have one more question, if I may ask it."

"Yes, my son."

"What about the cube? What are we to do with it?"

"It is under protection at the moment," said Odin. "I do not worry about it. It will not fall into Loki's hands again."

"It is not Loki that I worry about."

There was another silence.

"My son, are you saying that you believe a member of Asgard would steal the cube?"

"Yes, Father."

Odin was not happy with this. Though he could not argue. Who would not want to possess the power of the cube?

"I suppose it is possible-"

Odin was cut off when the doors in which Thor came in were slammed open. A scrawny young man came sprinting in, holding onto his helmet with his left hand for it was two sizes too big.

"All-Father Odin," he said, trying to catch his breath. "Sif has sent me to you."

"And what is it she wishes?"

"She wishes for me to tell you something."

There was a pause in which the man was breathing heavily.

"Well then?" asked Odin impatiently. "What is it?"

"It is the cube, All-Father. It is missing."


	5. Chapter Five

**Once again, wow. Thanks for all the alerts and favorites guys!**

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* * *

**Chapter Five**

The next day, Gwen found herself back in the world of irritation. She no longer looked sickly and no longer had a headache, but that didn't stop her from being annoyed. And some people, especially Nick Fury, were very good at making her annoyed. And she didn't appreciate it.

Gwen had woken up with the impression she'd be leaving and going back to Stark Tower to rest there, but it seemed Fury had a different idea in mind. Even if she wasn't exactly needed at the moment.

"But all my stuff is there!" exclaimed Gwen after she had approached him in the command center.

"Either you stay here or you go and we'll bring you right back," he said. "I promise we won't send you through tests as long as you remain on the helicarrier."

Needless to say, Gwen was more than angry. She was pissed. So for the next few days, she was cooped up in the labs with Bruce, who also seemed to be living there. It made things easier at meals to at least have a friend there for Natasha and Clint were apparently too cool to eat with the rest of the crew.

Gwen also wondered were Steve Rodgers wandered off too. She hadn't thought about the fact that Tony had called him a "Capsicle" the day she met him. She was very curious to find out why and thought it was slightly disrespectful to ask other people behind his back.

But that was another matter. Her first priority out of everything was to find out why SHIELD had a part of the tesseract on the helicarrier. She spent a lot of time in the labs simply trying different ways to crack the codes of SHIELD's security. But she eventually also noticed that there was a missing person to their party.

"Where's Tony?" Gwen asked Bruce as she scanned the security camera footage of where the door that Clint took her through was.

"I'm not sure," answered the doctor.

"Is he okay?"

"Oh, I'm sure he's fine."

"What if he got arrested?"

Bruce looked up from the counter at Gwen's worried face.

"Gwendolyn," he said calmly, "there is no way that someone could arrest Tony Stark."

Gwen suppressed a smile at the image of what would happen of someone did try. It involved explosions and a lot of angry people.

It had been about a week after Gwen became a resident of the helicarrier that she had a headache return. She groaned as she woke up to feel a throbbing head. Reaching over, Gwen gabbed her phone and texted Natasha in hopes that she'd alert Fury that she was not feeling good. Gwen decided she was going to spend her day in her living quarters.

It was quiet most of the day. Gwen snuck out to grab something to eat before the crew would so she didn't run into anyone. They would certainly be asking her a lot of questions.

It was shortly after lunch and she was working on some more code cracking on her phone when there was a knock on her door. Curious, she yelled, "It's open!"

Her visitor opened the door and revealed himself as Steve Rodgers.

"Oh, hi Captain," she said feeling rather surprised.

"Hi, um, Agent Romanoff said that you weren't feeling good," he said. His cheeks were slightly pink and Gwen couldn't believe a man as attractive as himself seemed so nervous about talking to her.

"Yeah, I have another headache," she said, giving him a small smile.

"Is there anything I can get for you?"

Gwen's eyes widened in surprise. "You're offering to help me?"

Steve furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why wouldn't I?"

"It's just that no one has offered to get me anything before."

"Then you need to be around some nicer people, ma'am."

Ma'am? She had never been called ma'am before. Now _that_ was surprising.

"Well, thanks for the offer, but I've just got to let the Excedrin kick in now," she answered.

"The what?"

"Y'know, the medicine? Relieves headaches?"

Steve still looked rather confused.

"Actually," said Gwen hoping to avoid the awkwardness that was occuring, "could you go and tell Doctor Banner that the medication he gave me wore off already?"

"Can do, ma'am." Steve smiled and gave a salute.

"Thank you, Captain."

"No problem, Agent Powers."

"Captain?" she asked when he began to leave.

"Yes?"

"You can call me Gwen," she said with a large smile.

Steve returned it. "Alright, _Gwen_. Then you can call me Steve."

And with that, Steve left and closed the door behind him, leaving Gwen with a ridiculously large smile on her face.

* * *

Steve was walking with a straighter back as he made his way to the labs. He couldn't believe that he actually had a successful conversation with Agent Powers - no, now it was Gwen, he'd have to remember that. But she had actually been smiling and everything.

He had been worried he'd make a fool of himself and therefore avoided meals with everyone else knowing she'd be there. The only reason he was on the helicarrier was because he tried living in Brooklyn again, but it was just so..._different_. And it was also hard to live in a place where you didn't know how to use ninety percent of the appliances.

So, in his time being anti-social while Gwen was eating, he was trying to build up the courage to talk to her. And once he found out she wasn't feeling good, he had to talk to her. He didn't want her thinking he didn't ever want to see her.

Finally, Steve made it to the labs where Bruce was once again working.

"Doctor Banner?" asked Steve. "Gwen wants me to tell you her medication wore off already."

"Oh, thanks Rodgers," said Bruce, looking up.

Steve smiled at the Doctor and turned to leave.

Bruce looked down but quickly looked back up and squinted behind his lenses.

"Since when do you call her Gwen?"

But it was too late. Steve had already left.

* * *

Clint found it easiest to think at night. He would wander the helicarrier and be on the lookout for suspicious activity. That was how he found the door which held the room that hid a part of the tesseract. He wasn't sure when it had gotten there, but it probably had been there since Thor and Loki had gone back to Asgard.

It was weird how they hadn't noticed that the cube wasn't completely together.

Clint was contemplating different uses for the cube when he heard footsteps. They were fast, which was suspicious, so Clint went to follow it. His footsteps were nearly silent.

There was a figure at the end of a dark hall and it turned right. Clint was fast and was at the end of the hall in a few seconds. He pressed himself up against the wall on the right and peaked out.

The figure was at the door.

In order to stay in the shadows, Clint stayed still and watched the figure open the door and go inside. It looked about the same size as the figure he had seen the other night when he first discovered the door. Clint wanted to follow, but stayed back, especially when he saw that whoever went inside had closed the door and locked it. So Clint stayed at the end of the hall and watched.

Watching was something he did best.

"Barton?"

Clint turned to see Natasha making her way down the hall.

"Tasha?" he asked. "What are you doing?"

"I couldn't sleep. A better question is, what are _you_ doing?"

She stopped in front of Clint and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I couldn't sleep either," Clint every so slightly lied.

"We both know that you're watching something...or someone," answered Natasha.

Clint knew that there was no way he could make up an excuse for watching that door. He sure wanted to, but he realized he would need to tell Natasha what was hidden in there.

"Listen, I found-"

He was cut off by the sound of the door closing. Clint realized too late that whoever was going in the door had already left. As quick as he could, Clint turned to look around the corner and saw just a coat whipping around and leaving the hall in a different direction than the figure came.

"I'll talk to you later, Tasha."

Without waiting for an answer, Clint took off down the hall silently. He followed the direction in which the figure went, but it was no use.

The figure was gone.

* * *

Asgard had never been in such a panic. No one knew how the cube had possibly gone missing. It had been locked in a stone cellar which was guarded every moment of each day. No one was allowed inside. The guards _always_ remained on the outside. Therefore there was less of a chance that someone could take it.

Of course, all the guards were infuriated at the fact they had been guarding an empty room for months. They felt as if their time had been completely wasted. But they got over this drama and helped the rest of the realm in their search for it. Unfortunately, it seemed the cube was not in Asgard. And if it wasn't in Asgard, then it could be absolutely anywhere. And that did not ease the panic each person felt.

Odin had sent a group of Asgard's finest warriors to search for the tesseract and they always came back empty handed. It was so near impossible that the cube was gone and seeing as it had been gone for long, the chances of actually finding it were very slim.

To Thor it seemed someone had taken it when it had been returned. And he was very unsure how. So once he had been alerted of the cube's disapperance, Thor nearly flew to Loki.

"Brother," said Thor when he entered Loki's cell which was quite similar to what the cube had been in. "Brother, you must speak."

Loki's mouth was not covered, but he did not part his lips. He had not spoken since he was in Midgard.

"Brother," repeated Thor, "the tesseract has been stolen."

Loki looked as though he wanted to say something, but he did not make any movement to do so. Thor thought maybe Loki knew what had happened.

"Loki," said Thor, "I want to know if you have any knowledge of what happened to it."

He remained silent and still, watching Thor. The god of thunder became fustrated and left the stone room. Thor knew he was going to have to go to Midgard soon and warn them of the cube's disapperance. He was to protect Midgard from danger. That was his job. But Thor wanted Loki to talk.

And most of all, though unrelated to the crisis at hand, he wanted his brother back.


	6. Chapter Six

**First, I'm super excited because my mom and I are going to the Avengers again (finally) this afternoon and we bought a bunch of action figures to take with us. I can't wait!**

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* * *

**Chapter Six**

After hearing from Clint that someone was indeed going to the cube at night, but leaving it there, and after finding nothing in SHIELD's system, Gwen came to the conclusion that there was only one person who knew the cube was there. And she was determined to find out.

However, Gwen couldn't help but feel the need to find Steve. She couldn't believe how..._girly_ she felt after he left her room. He was so polite. She had never met someone like that before. It was almost like he was from a different era.

_Oh._

And that's when it all made sense. She couldn't believe she hadn't realized it before.

The politeness from another era. Ma'am. _Capsicle_.

Steve Rodgers was the famous Captain America.

Gwen felt incredibly stupid as she figured this out. Yet he was still so awkward with women! How was this even possible?

So, Gwen quickly decided she was going to find him and talk to him. If he really was Captain America, then maybe she could talk to him. From what she learned in school and working for SHIELD, he had a history too. Maybe he could understand. So Gwen decided she was going to tell him about what happened to her as a child, even if she only properly talked to the man once.

But then again, Gwen had no idea where to look for Steve. Then she remember something Fury had said when she had arrived.

_You'll find him in the gym._

The problem was, Gwen had no idea where the gym was.

She was worried people would be suspicious of why she was suddenly looking for the gym, so Gwen decided to roam the helicarrier in hopes of finding it. It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes of wandering when she could hear punches being thrown at something. She hoped that she finally found it, otherwise someone was getting seriously beat up.

Gwen entered an open door and saw Steve hitting a punching bag. He was wearing a white t-shirt and sweatpants. She watched him for a little bit, but felt slightly weird for doing so. Therefore, she moved forward and cleared her throat.

Steve jumped as it seemed he had been very focused on what he was doing. He turned around as though he expected someone else and when he saw Gwen, he blushed.

"Hi, Steve," said Gwen when she realized Steve couldn't find the right words to say.

"Hey, Gwen."

Steve unhooked the punching bag and laid it down on the floor. Gwen moved over to a wall and leaned against it. She slid down until she was sitting on the floor.

"What brings you here?" asked Steve as he unwrapped some cloth from his hands.

"I wanted to talk to you," she said, blush creeping up on her face as well. She could've sworn she saw a huge smile appear on Steve's face, but he wiped it off when he looked at her.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"I just...well first of all I wanted to ask you something."

"Ask away."

Gwen took a shaky breath. "Are you really Captain America?"

Steve paused and then laughed as he continued to pack up his things in a duffle bag. "I'm surprised it took you this long to figure it out."

"Yeah, well, it's not like it's something you come across everyday," replied Gwen with a smirk.

"Good point."

Gwen's smirk went away. "How does it feel? To be different?"

Steve looked up at Gwen with a serious expression. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, well, you _are _from the 1940s. And you're a super soldier. That's not exactly normal."

Gwen looked down at her feet which were at the end of her outstretched legs. She could hear Steve walk over to her and felt him sit down next to her.

"Do you feel different?" he asked softly.

She was silent for a moment. "More than you can imagine."

"You don't have to tell me why. But let me say that if you're different and I'm different, then we can be different together."

She wanted to tell him. Maybe it would even help to tell another person. It was why she had looked for him anyway. Sure, she had only known him for a little over a week, but he was different than everyone else, just like she said. And he certainly didn't go through what she had, but maybe he could relate. She just needed someone to talk to, someone that could _understand._

"Do you remember me saying to Fury that the last time someone wanted to help me I ended up in therapy for ten years?" she asked at last.

Steve nodded.

"As you know, I suffer from headaches," she began. "I have all of my life. Even as a baby. At first I would just cry all of the time. My parents took me into different doctors who all claimed I was fine and just told them to feed me more, have me sleep more, all that baby stuff. But once I was older and able to communicate, I got it through to my parents that it was my head. So of course they took me into doctors again, but they all said it was nothing. When I was six, my parents found a specialized hospital that dealt with young kids around my age. They thought it would be the only chance at helping me, so they took me in. The appointments went for an hour and my parents were told to leave and come back. I can't believe how stupid they were to leave their child with these strangers. But all they wanted to do was _help_. However, the doctors weren't trying to help me. They _experimented _on me. It was horrible. For an hour each week they'd be poking me with needles everywhere and drawing blood. They even sent an electrical current through me once. They didn't care about what they were doing to me. They just wanted to use me as their pet."

"Didn't you tell your parents?" asked Steve. He sounded disgusted by the doctors actions.

"They told me they'd make it worse if I did," answered Gwen. "But eventually I went in for a flu shot at a regular doctor's office and the moment I saw the needle and started freaking out. I cried and screamed and wanted to get away. That's when my parents insisted on seeing an appointment. The doctors thought my parents were stupid, you see, so they were surprised when my parents demanded this. Suddenly we had to reschedule my appointment. My parents made me tell them what happened. They called the police and the doctors were gone the next day. My parents felt terrible. They felt responsible. I tried telling them that it wasn't their fault, but they didn't believe me. So they stuck me in therapy. In case you haven't noticed, I have a strong hate for Agent Maxwell. He was a psychiatrist before joining SHIELD. He just reminds me of the one I went to. It's probably how he got my medical records. I thought I wiped them out, but he must've pulled a few strings."

There was a never ending silence after Gwen finished.

"Wow," said Steve to end the silence. "I'm so-"

"Sorry, I know," finished Gwen with a grimace. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't want sympathy. That's all I've ever gotten. I just want someone to understand."

"I see," said Steve slowly. "Why do you think I'd understand?"

Gwen looked up at him and smiled. "I told you. You're different. You're not like Tony who I told because I became his favorite employee and friend. You're not like Pepper who I told because Tony had dropped hints. You're not like Bruce who I told because he had to know why I didn't want the medication he and Tony make for me to help my headaches to be injected. You're not like them. I'm telling you because you seem like someone who could listen and not judge."

Steve smiled now too. "So you trust me enough to tell me all of that?"

"Yes, I actually do."

There was now a comfortable silence in which Gwen felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. But it wasn't long lived as a new visitor came in.

Agent Maxwell.

"Captain Rodgers," he said with a sly smile when his eyes landed on Gwen, "Director Fury needs you in the command center."

"Uh, yeah, okay."

Steve got up and grabbed his duffle bag. Before leaving, he turned to Gwen.

"I understand," he said. "And I trust you, too."

With one last smile, he turned and left, followed by Agent Maxwell whose eyes did not leave Gwen.

Gwen wished she could've told Steve about the accident. But it wasn't time for that, if there was a time at all. She wasn't going to ruin her new friendship with Steve by making him think she was a monster. It would be better to just not tell him until she was sure he wouldn't hate her. Though, she wasn't sure if that would even be possible.

* * *

It had been over a week and Tony was still at Stark Tower working on his many computers and devices trying to figure out all he could about Agent Maxwell. He didn't want anyone to know what he was doing, so he found it best to _not_ work on this using SHIELD technology. JARVIS worked with him a lot better anyway.

"Tony," came Pepper's voice from behind him as he looked a hologram of some of Agent Maxwell's records. "You need to get some air at some point."

At first Pepper was worried about Tony with him working so hard, but then she became annoyed at how he never left the penthouse. He even refused to tell her what he was doing.

"Not now Pepper, I'm doing something important," he replied before taking a sip of his drink.

"You've been working too much," she said, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Why can't you tell me what you're doing?"

"Because I could be wrong."

"And you can't work on this with Bruce, why?"

"Because this has to do with a SHIELD agent and I don't want them finding out," answered Tony.

Pepper groaned and walked into their bedroom. It was late and she was tired. And it seemed Tony was too focused to do anything but what he was currently doing.

What Tony wanted was answers. Gwen had seemed to come to the conclusion Tony had, except she actually didn't at the same time. And it had gotten Tony thinking.

Everytime Gwen got bad, Agent Maxwell was there. He was always the one provoking her, making her angry, making her lose control.

_He_ wasthe one who had caused her to have the accident anyway.

But he wasn't getting anywhere with it. So, seeing as Tony was tired too, he said goodnight to JARVIS and climbed into bed.

* * *

Agent Maxwell had been waiting for this. Everything was going better than he had originally planned. Once he had control of Gwen, she'd be able to do more than just destroy the Avengers. She could be a very useful ally.

Having waited past nightfall, Agent Maxwell left his living quarters and made his way to the door. He knew the assassin Hawkeye had been following him, so Agent Maxwell had made sure the lights were on in the hall so he could be recognized.. But that was just an added bonus, just like Gwen and the super soldier. That would certainly be handy.

Agent Maxwell punched in the password and the door unlocked. He entered and did not close the door behind him. The assassin would be watching, but would not follow. Instead this would look odd. And the assassin would go and tell someone or more likely watch even more closely.

After climbing those four metal steps, Agent Maxwell continued along the pathway and climbed down at the end. He walked forward, took a left, and found himself at the familiar lockers. He could already feel the tesseract's energy pulsating from within the middle locker.

But this was the last time Agent Maxwell would need to go to the lockers. Everything was set. And so the Agent reached a hand to the back of his head and snaked his fingers under his hair. He could feel the small orb of energy which he had placed there to change his appearance. And so he yanked it away and added it to the cube.

Everything about him changed. His raven hair went down to his shoulders and upon it sat a helmet with two horns coming out the front. His black suit was replaced by armor and a green cape. But most importantly, his face became different. He was a different man.

And the man smiled.

Loki had returned to Midgard.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Gaaaaaah you guys are so awesome. Just as awesome as the Avengers is. (By the way, my mom had her Loki action figure I gave her for mothers day feed her milk duds and she cheered loudly every time he was on screen. We recieved strange looks.)**

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* * *

**Chapter Seven**

"Please help me!"

Thor had heard the screaming and pleas as he was running to where Loki was kept to check on the prisoner. But this was not Loki's voice. And this worried Thor.

So when Thor finally reached the chamber in which Loki had been chained, the god muttered a few Asgardian swear words at what he found.

Loki was not in the stone room. Instead, it was a man with black hair tied into a ponytail. His face was more circular than Loki's and he was wearing a black suit. There was dried blood on his clothes and in his hair.

The strange man looked up at Thor. "Please, who are you?"

"I am Thor, god of thunder, son of Odin," answered Thor with his deep voice. "And who are you?"

"I am Agent Alexander Maxwell," said the man nervously. "I need to get out of here!"

"How did you arrive here, mortal?" inquired Thor.

"I don't know!" exclaimed the man named Alexander. "I just woke up here! I believe I was kidnapped by a man in a green cape! I couldn't speak! It's been such a long time since I came here!"

Thor felt furious. Loki wasn't in Asgard and hadn't been for a long time. Had the mortals made an alliance with him? It seemed unlikely, but Thor did not let the idea slip away. He decided it was time to get back to Midgard.

But of course, now he had this mortal named Alexander to deal with. The man was scared and hurt, so it was more than likely he'd have to be treated in Asgard before he could return to the rest of the mortals.

"I will send a healer to you," Thor told Alexander. "You will remain here until you are well enough to travel."

The man still looked frightened, but thankful. "Thank you."

Thor released the man of his bindings and the man stretched out his arms and fingers. Thor turned and left the cell to find his father.

He did not have to travel far.

"Father," said Thor as he approached the All-Father. "Loki is not here."

Odin's face turned to that of shock. "What are you saying?"

"Loki is not here, Father. I believe he disgused a mortal and sent him in his place."

The old man looked like he could kill someone right then and there.

"Do you believe Loki has returned to Midgard?" asked Odin.

"Yes, Father," replied Thor. "I wish to travel there to find him and bring him back."

"Of course. And I assume he has the tesseract?"

"I believe so, Father."

Odin scowled.

"The mortal needs a healer," added Thor. "I will leave after he gets one."

"So be it, my son," answered Odin grimly. "But once Loki has returned, I will not be as forgiving as last time."

* * *

It was Agent Maxwell. That's who Clint had been seeing all these times.

Clint couldn't help but feel stupid. This SHIELD agent had been doing things behind the backs of everyone. What was he even doing with the tesseract anyway? And the main thing was, how did he even get it?

The archer had so many questions running through his mind. Even though he wanted to run after Agent Maxwell and bring him in to be punished, he waited outside the door for the agent to come out.

Except it wasn't Agent Maxwell that exited the door.

Clint felt his heart drop as Loki of Asgard came out the door in his weird hat and cape, clutching the tesseract in his hand. And he had that stupid smile on his face the whole time.

Unfortunately, Clint did not have his bow and arrows with him. This left him defenselss except for hand-to-hand combat. But Clint had silence on his side and leapt out from his hiding place in an attempt to attack Loki.

But Loki seemed to had been expecting this. So instead of Clint knocking Loki over, the god of mischief smacked Clint in the head with his godly strength and sent him flying backwards into a wall.

And then Loki disappeared, leaving Clint on the floor unconscious.

* * *

Not once in her life did Gwen fall asleep with a smile on her face. It was hard to believe that she had actually told Steve her childhood story. Granted that wasn't everything that had happened. She hadn't told him what her therapy had been like, but telling him about her childhood was enough. And he had understood. That was the best part of it all. He didn't try to make her feel better about her life, he didn't ask questions. He went with it.

And Gwen was thankful for that.

However, Gwen was rudely awoken from her slumber when a loud and obnoxious alarm started buzzing. Still half asleep, Gwen assumed her phone was the culprit and reached over to grab it and turn it off. But she soon realized that it was not her phone. There was an alarm going off in the helicarrier.

In a panic, Gwen changed into some jeans and threw on a jacket after pulling her messy blonde hair back into a ponytail. She exited her living quarters and found that all the others were doing the same. She joined the crowd that was heading for the command center only to be jerked aside.

Gwen let herself be pulled into a different and empty hallway. She turned to scold whoever yanked her away only to find it was Steve, who was wearing his button down shirt and khakis.

"Steve!" she exclaimed. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," he answered. He grabbed her hand, blushed, and moved his grasp to her wrist. "Fury told me to get you and bring you to the conference room."

Gwen nodded and remained silent.

They continued down the hallway and took a right and then entered the first room on the left. Inside was a large circular table with many chairs around it. Bruce was already inside and quickly got up out of his chair when he saw them.

"Do you two know what happened?" he asked with panic in his voice.

Gwen and Steve both shook their heads. Bruce sat back down, but the duo remained standing. It was a short amount of time when Fury entered the room followed by Natasha who was supporting Clint.

"Clint?" asked Gwen worriedly. "What happened?"

Before he could speak, Fury interrupted. "We will not speak of what happened until Stark arrives, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," they all said together.

It was very quiet and Gwen noticed that Steve still had a grib on her wrist. It wasn't uncomfotable and Gwen couldn't stop the butterfly attack that erupted in her stomach.

It seemed Steve realized this as well and blushed, letting her go. They both took seats at the table where Clint and Natasha had sat down while Fury paced the room.

The silence seemed almost deadly, that is until a certain genius arrived.

"What _asshole_ tries to take over the world at three in the morning?"

"Hey Tony," Gwen called when he came through the door with his head thrown back in frustration and his hands rubbing his sleepy eyes.

"Don't villains sleep?" he groaned. "I mean _come on_."

"Stop your whining Stark," said Fury irritably. "Barton, you may now relay what happened."

Clint stood up slowly and cleared his throat. "I was patrolling the helicarrier when I saw Agent Maxwell go through a door." Clint gave Gwen a look to tell her it was _that_ door. "I watched to see what he was doing, but it wasn't him that came out. It was Loki. And he had the tesseract."

There was a collective gasp from everyone but Clint, Natasha, and Fury, who seemed to have been already told what happened.

"I tried to attack him," continued Clint, "but he knocked me out."

"That's when I found him," said Natasha. "I saw Loki, but he disappeared. We then went and found Fury."

There was a stunned silence that followed and Gwen felt sick to her stomach.

How long had Loki been impersonating Agent Maxwell? It had to have started somewhere between his defeat earlier in the year and the current moment. And in this time had been the accident. It was Loki who had provoked her into it and he knew what she could do. He knew everything about her.

Gwen thought she was going to throw up.

And now Loki could be anywhere. And with the tesseract, he could do anything.

"Then what happened to Agent Maxwell?" asked Bruce. "The real one?"

"We don't know," answered Fury, rubbing the back of his bald head. "We will have to send a message to Asgard about this situation."

"Doesn't it seem a bit fishy to you?" asked Tony. "I mean, Loki could've been here for a long time, yet no one in Asgard knew."

Fury sighed as he watched Tony start thinking things through. Tony got up out of his seat and started walking around the room.

"They had Loki and the tesseract. What if-" Tony placed his hands on the table "-they sent them here?"

"That's insane," replied Steve.

"It's just a thought."'

"We're going to have to look for him," said Fury. "I've already got Agent Hill working in the command center."

"It can't be too hard," said Tony. "Last time he wanted an audience. It seems the same thing this time."

"What?" asked Gwen.

"I'm saying that he _knew_ man-Katniss had been following him. He _planned_ to reveal himself tonight and made sure he was known."

"Then what's his plan?" asked Natasha. "Is he just going to try to take over the world again?"

"It failed last time," said Bruce. "Why would he try it again?"

"Vengence, perhaps?" suggested Tony.

"Vengence?" repeated Steve.

"We ruined his plan," explained Tony. "Maybe he wants to get back at us."

"So that's it? He just wants to attack us?"

"It has to be more than that," argued Clint. "He could've been planning this for months."

That's what made Gwen's stomach flip. He had been with her all those months. He had tried asking her questions, learning about her. He was definitely planning something and she was worried it involved her.

"When we're ready, we'll call you all in to suit up," said Fury. "You're dismissed."

"I had to wake up for _that_?" asked Tony as he walked towards the door. "I was already suspicious of Agent Maxwell anyway..."

Tony left the room first followed by Clint, Natasha, and Bruce.

"Agent Powers?" asked Fury. "I'd like a word with you."

Gwen nodded and turned to Steve. "You should go back to sleep or something. I'll be fine."

Steve nodded a bit stifly and exited the room, leaving Gwen alone with Fury.

"Agent Powers, did you know anything about this?"

Gwen looked up at Fury. "No. I never liked Agent Maxwell, I would've never known."

Silence again.

"Powers, have you told Loki anything that could be useful to him?"

She didn't want to answer that. It wasn't like she actually told him anything seeing as he had been posing as a SHIELD agent and could easily access files. But there was something, but she didn't tell him. She had shown him. And it had been completely on accident.

So, Gwen shook her head.

Fury leaned back. "You may go, Agent Powers."

Surprised by his lack of questioning, Gwen got up and slowly made a retreat back to her room. She felt like she wasn't safe anymore. There was no doubt in her mind that Loki had been the one to push her over the edge. He knew what she was capable of and she knew that he would want to use her. And if he used her, she could become a great threat to everyone.

And Gwen didn't want to become a threat. That was one of the last things she wanted to do.

So eventually Gwen made it back to her living quarters and laid down on her bed, not bothering to change. She wasn't going to sleep anyway.

Coming to New York had been a terrible idea.


	8. Chapter Eight

**I'm super mad at myself because I have two other ideas for Avengers fics but I have like twenty other things I want to do and AEF'JKFA; I CAN'T HANDLE MY BRAIN.**

**Anyway, I have a lot of time today and none tomorrow, so I might as well post this :D**

**garnet86: Thank you! I'm glad you're curious!**

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* * *

**Chapter Eight**

Things were going better than Loki expected. He got out of the helicarrier with the tesseract and had managed to make himself known. Now all he had to do was wait. They'd find him soon enough. But what if they didn't? Loki didn't want to wait around the abandoned warehouses of New York forever. He wanted Gwen to come to him. She had a power beyond the tesseract and with the cube, she would be incredibly useful. But how was she to come to him if he didn't give SHIELD a little push?

But then again, he was pretty sure that the agency wouldn't let Gwen go out into battle, if that was what Loki chose to do. But _then again_, Gwen would certainly be very upset at the fact the villain of this new war had actually been with her for the past several months. Who wouldn't be? And who wouldn't want revenge or some sort of satisfaction of hitting him in the face?

Unfortunately, Loki could already see a problem.

That super soldier.

Even the god of mischief and lies could see how the soldier looked at Gwen. But he could use this to his advantage as well, but first he needed Gwen. Which meant that if Gwen did go to battle, the soldier would be with her. And Loki would have to separate them.

After thinking about it, Loki came up with his plan. He wasn't going to hide. He had never planned to anyway. But why not have the first battle of this new war be where the last one ended? Right in New York itself didn't sound too bad. The helicarrier wasn't too far away. Surely those Avengers would come to him. Maybe Gwen might even lose it and cause New York to become ruins. Not that it'd be a loss though. Gwen would be okay and all the Avengers would be dead. Just like that.

Loki smiled at the idea, but it faded when he suddenly realized that the real Agent Maxwell's disguise went away up in Asgard. And so did that curse he put on him to keep him quiet. There was no doubt in Loki's mind that Thor would be arriving soon, realizing both Loki and the tesseract were gone. And where else would Loki go? And then he smiled again. He'd have to wait until his brother came. _Then _he could initiate war. Maybe even the Avengers would fight each other, like Loki had hoped. It had worked along with his plan quite well when he thought about it. The Avengers would think that those in Asgard had planned this and Asgard would think that those in Midgard had planned this. It was very stupid to think either thing, but none of these people seemed very smart.

Except Gwen.

Loki's thoughts kept returning to her. She was so powerful. He had known she would be, seeing as it was the tesseract that brought him to her. He knew that once he used the power he held in his hands in a way that she had inspired him to, he would have her under his complete control.

And once he had Gwen, there was no stopping him.

* * *

It was busy on the helicarrier after Loki had made his appearance. And Gwen didn't want to leave her living quarters. She just wanted to stay in there until she could completely understand what had happened. But she realized that someone would come to fetch her eventually, and so she got up and dressed.

After exiting her room, she made her way to the command center where everyone was still up from being awoken the night before. Each person was sliding away on their screens, looking for any signs of Loki.

Fury stood in his spot in the middle, his arms out on both sides of him, looking at several different monitors. Gwen saw that Steve was already in there, his arms crossed, watching the different screens, though Gwen was pretty sure he didn't know how to read them. Bruce was not present and was most likely in the labs, looking for any sign of the tesseract. Tony must've gone back to Stark Tower to sleep.

Gwen went up next to Steve. "Have they found anything yet?"

Steve shook his head. "Nothing."

"Is Doctor Banner in the labs, then?"

Steve simply nodded.

"Is there something wrong?" Gwen asked softly.

"I signed them," answered Steve.

Confused, Gwen turned to look him in the face. "Signed what?"

"Agent Coulson's cards."

Gwen nodded in understanding. Phil had _loved_ those Captain America cards he had. She supposed that he had asked Steve to sign them. They _were_ in great condition and all.

"Loki killed him before I could," added Steve sadly. That's when Gwen suddenly realized what she was missing.

Loki was back and he was the one who killed Phil. And, seeing as Phil had been such a fan of Steve, the war hero felt guilty.

"We'll get him, y'know," said Gwen soothingly. "I'm sure we will."

"But how many people have to die first?" asked Steve.

Gwen didn't answer. How was someone supposed to answer a question like that?

"I gave him his first card, y'know," she said instead of silence. "The day I learned he was such a big fan of yours, I grabbed the one I had and gave it to him."

Steve frowned. "You had a card?"

Gwen nodded. "My grandfather was a fan too. Seeing as you were the reason he joined the army in the first place."

"What?"

"He had attended one of those shows you did. I swear, it was like he had a man-crush on you."

Suddenly, an female agent stood up. "Director Fury, we have a hit on a supernatural disturbance."

Fury quickly strode over to the monitor, followed by Gwen and Steve.

"Is it Loki?" asked Gwen.

"No," answered Fury, looking out the glass windows at the front of the helicarrier. "It's his brother."

Gwen looked up too and saw the sky had turned gray and cloudy. Thunder shook the helicarrier and lightning struck outside.

"Take us over there," commanded Fury to the crew. "And call in Stark. Get him here quickly."

The crew of the helicarrier went to work until the ship was placed in the middle of the storm. There was a loud bang overhead and Gwen snapped her head up in surprise.

"Agent Romanoff!" called Fury. Gwen saw that she hadn't even noticed the redhead lurking in the command center. "Go fetch him. Bring him here."

Natasha nodded and quickly left.

"He's not dangerous, is he?" asked Gwen uncertainly to Steve.

Steve laughed. "Not unless you count being the god of thunder dangerous."

Gwen swallowed loudly and gave an uneasy nod.

They waited and suddenly the doors opened. Gwen expected to see Natasha with Loki's brother, but instead it was only Tony, still looking pretty tired in a long sleeved shirt and jeans.

"Do you people _ever _sleep?" he asked irritably.

"It's eleven in the morning, Stark," answered Fury.

"I know what time it is, Fury," said Tony with an eye roll. "Just...never mind."

He walked up to Gwen and Steve with a smirk on his face.

"Well, isn't it the lovebirds."

Both of them started blushing, their faces and necks turning bright red. Both opened their mouths and tried to contradict Tony's sentence, but all that came out was a series of stutters.

Tony, still smirking, continued past them. Both Gwen and Steve looked at their feet until the door opened again. This time it really was Natasha with a man behind her.

He was muscular like Steve, and had long blonde hair. He wore armor and a red cape. However, Gwen wasn't too comfortable with the large and heavy looking hammer he wielded.

"Thor, my buddy!" exclaimed Tony.

Everyone watched as he approached the god and wrapped him in a tight hug. Thor raised his eyebrows and rejected the action.

"Mortal, why are you touching me?" he asked in a booming voice.

Gwen coughed to stifle a laugh.

"Because I haven't seen you in _forever_," answered Tony like a high school girl. "Might I say, your hair looks marvelous-"

"That's enough, Stark," said Fury. "Thor, we assume you're here because of Loki, correct?"

Thor, looking pleased that Tony had backed off, moved forward.

"Yes, that is my reason for returning," answered Thor. "Also, the tesseract-"

"Is missing, we know," replied Fury. "Why is it that you did not tell us?"

"We did not know," continued Thor. "We were alerted of its disapperance only very recently. Then I discovered that the Loki that was locked up in Asgard was not Loki at all."

"Yeah," said Tony, "he's here in whatever you call this place and probably planning to wreak havoc. He's _also_ got the tesseract."

"We believe he used it to change his appearance," added Natasha. "He was disgused as-"

"Agent Alexander Maxwell," completed Thor.

Everyone looked at each other and then back at the god.

"I heard cries for help coming from where Loki was to be," answered Thor. "It was not Loki. I believe he had him switch places with him."

"How is Agent Maxwell?" asked Gwen, surprising herself.

"He is injured. A healer is tending to him. He can not travel until he is healed."

Gwen suddenly felt bad for hating Agent Maxwell so much. It hadn't even been him when her hatred truly came out.

"Do you know what Loki might be up to?" asked Steve.

"No," replied Thor. "I can only assume it is the same as the previous time he was in here in Midgard."

"So _that's_ what you call it," said Tony.

"I suspect he will try a different strategy this time," continued Thor. "Of what I am unsure."

"Well, I guess all we can do now is wait," said Fury, turning around to face his monitors again.

Everyone seemed to disperse and go to do their own thing, however, Thor looked at Gwen and approached her.

"I believe we have not met," he said.

Gwen eyed his hammer for a second and then looked at his face.

"I'm Agent Gwendolyn Powers," she said, putting out her hand. "I have taken the place of Agent Phil Coulson."

Thor did not shake her hand, but instead lifted it to his lips and kissed it gently.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Gwendolyn."

Steve cleared his throat loudly, but Thor didn't notice.

"I am Thor Odinson of Asgard," continued Thor. He let go of Gwen's hand and she let it drop to her side.

"He's not as bad as I thought he'd be," she said once Thor moved past her. She turned to Steve who had a serious expression on his face. "Is there something wrong?"

Steve turned to look at Thor before answering. "No. Nothing."

But Gwen could tell he was lying. It wasn't until Steve walked away that Gwen realized why he seemed upset.

And she couldn't help but smile as the butterflies attacked again.

* * *

Gwen and Bruce were immiediately transferred to the labs to begin looking for the tesseract. However, Tony did not go with them even though he was ordered to.

He came in about fifteen minutes after Gwen and Bruce had begun their work.

"This is for you."

Gwen turned to look at Tony, but was forced to look down as he shoved a small group of yellow dasies into her hands. Tony continued past her looking rather crabby.

"What?" she asked as Bruce chuckled.

"They're not from me," stated Tony. "It's from your _secret admirer_."

Gwen looked down at the flowers again.

"What?" she repeated, still feeling confused.

"Oh for crying out loud, Gwendolyn," said Tony. "Who do you think they're from?"

Gwen began blushing as she realized that Steve had Tony give them to her. But then she looked back at Tony and realized he didn't look too happy.

"Tony?" she asked with a big grin. "Are you okay?"

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you very much."

"Are you getting protective of me?"

Tony turned around to look at her with fake surprise. "I am not."

"Yes you are."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Okay, this could go on forever."

Gwen sighed as she set the flowers down on a counter gently. There was a bit of silence for a moment.

"Are too."

Tony sighed. It was going to be a long day.


	9. Chapter Nine

**YOU GUUUUUUYS *cue Tom Hiddleston laugh***

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* * *

**Chapter Nine**

The sun was rising over New York as Loki used the tesseract to change his clothes. But then he changed his mind. Only SHIELD would recognize him in a suit. But anyone would recognize him in his Asgardian outfit.

And he wanted to be recognized.

And why not add in the helmet as well?

So, only one day after he made his first apperance, Loki strutted outside of the warehouse he was in which resided next to a dock which was unused for years. Loki continued walking, the cube in his left hand, and finally approached a busy nearby street. He put out his right arm and in his hand appeared a glowing spear. It was not the sceptre he used before, but it was still better than nothing.

Loki aimed the tip of the spear at the ground, a smirk on his face. He threw the spear with as much strength as he could muster and it landed in the middle of the street. Just as some cars were driving by, it exploded.

A loud sonic bang was heard as the spear exploded and cars went flying. Some flipped over and others landed on nearby cars. Still smiling, Loki strode down the middle of the street, conjuring another spear. Once he was outside the radius of the first explosion, he saw people running in fear and cars turning around as fast as they could. Loki threw the new spear to get the same reaction as the first.

Fires were blazing and people were screaming. It was complete chaos.

And that was what Loki wanted.

* * *

"Agent Powers, Doctor Banner!"

Gwen looked up from the monitor she was at in the labs to see a flustered looking female SHIELD worker at the door.

"What is it?" asked Bruce.

"We got a hit on Loki," she said.

Gwen looked at Bruce the same time he looked at her. The two shared a silent conversation and nodded. They dropped their things and left the labs to head to the command center, neither of them saying anything.

In the command center was Fury who was directing everyone as well as Steve, Thor, Clint, Natasha, and Tony. They were all huddled around a monitor which was sitting in front of Agent Hill. Gwen and Bruce quickly made their way over to it.

"Where is he?" asked Bruce.

"He's in New York," answered Natasha. "He's at an abandoned warehouse that had a drug-bust a few years back."

On the monitor was a picture of Loki who was smirking. Gwen didn't like the look on his face as it screamed mischief.

"Uh, everyone, there is a bit of a problem here," came the voice of another SHIELD worker.

"What is it, Agent Walker?" asked Fury.

"Loki's just blown up part of a street, sir."

Everyone snapped their heads to look at the monitor which Agent Walker was at. They could see Loki walking among destroyed cars and smoke, his smirk still on his face.

"He has the tesseract with him," stated Thor. "We must find him!"

"I told you he wants an audience," said Tony.

They all watched as he throw a spear he held in his hand and watched it blow up another part of the street. People were hurrying out of the street and their cars in hopes of survival.

"That's it," said Steve, "I'm going."

"Wait!" exclaimed Gwen, grabbing onto his wrist. "I'll go with you."

"Are you crazy?" he asked. He looked at all the others. "We need to stop him before he destroys New York."

"Rodgers is right," said Fury. "It's time for you all to suit up."

"But what about me?" asked Gwen feeling irritated. "I want to help!"

"You're not going," ordered Steve.

She scoffed. "Yes I am!"

"Cap's right there, too," agreed Tony. "You're not going."

"Why not?"

Tony gave her a knowing look. "I don't want you getting hurt."

Gwen knew he meant that he didn't want her losing control, but she knew she'd be fine.

"I won't get hurt!"

Tony looked over at Bruce who cleared his throat.

"I agree with Tony, you should stay here."

"I think she should come," aruged Natasha. "She's a good fighter."

"I agree," added Clint. "She's got the best aim with handgun."

Feeling triumphant that the master assassins thought she would be okay to come along, Gwen turned to Fury who didn't seem to be paying any attention to the conversation.

"Director Fury?" she asked him. "Do you think I should go?"

Fury didn't hesitate. "Yes. You should go."

Gwen tried not to smile as she turned back to Steve, Tony, and Bruce.

Steve spoke first. "Fine, but you're staying with me."

"Suit up, buttercup," added Tony with a wink.

* * *

It didn't take long for Gwen to suit up. She wore a skin-tight SHIELD uniform and had her blonde curls hanging around her face. Gwen had followed Natasha and Clint into an aircraft hanger inside the helicarrier where Steve and Bruce were waiting. Tony had gone for his Iron Man armor and Thor apparently didn't need to use aircrafts.

Gwen could feel Steve's eyes on her as she walked in and took a handgun and an earpiece from Natasha. She looked over at the super soldier who moved his eyes away from her, his cheeks turning a bright red.

Natasha and Clint took the controls and the aircraft lifted up and out of the helicarrier.

"Do we have any idea where Loki is right now?" asked Steve.

"No idea," came the voice of Agent Hill in Gwen's left ear. "We've lost sight of him, but explosions are going off everywhere."

"I just saw one in the middle of Central Park," came Tony's voice.

"Then we'll head there," said Steve.

Gwen remained standing until the aircraft had landed in the middle of Central Park. It seemed Tony had been right. In the middle of the park was a crater in which it looked like the spear had exploded.

"What do we do, Cap?" asked Clint as they filed out onto the ground.

"We find Loki," ordered Steve. "Barton, go with Agent Romanoff towards Times Square. Doctor Banner, you manage the monitors in the helicopter, try to find Loki there. Thor," at this the god came flying out of the sky and landed with a loud bang on the ground, "try to prevent the spears from exploding. Gwen, follow me."

Everyone nodded at their orders and went on their way. Steve, in his red, white, and blue Captain America uniform, slid his shield on his arm and motioned for Gwen to follow him. She quickly went after him, her gun still in her hands.

The explosions seemed to be lessening around them as Thor was able to get them out of the ground and throw them into the sky before it could hurt anyone.

Steve led Gwen into a nearby building which was nearly in ruins as it seemed a spear had exploded nearby it.

"Stick close to me," he ordered her. She nodded and remained silent as they listened for any possibly that Loki could be around.

"Hey guys!" came Tony's voice in the earpiece. "I see him! He's-"

There was static and then nothing.

"Tony?" asked Gwen. She suddenly became worried. Was he hurt? But then she realized nothing was coming out of the earpiece at all. "I think Loki just cut our communications."

"Doesn't surprise me," answered Steve grimly.

They stepped over rubble and Gwen suddenly whipped around when she noticed a blue light go zooming past her. She then looked up just in time to see a spear lodged into the ceiling.

"Steve!" she shouted and pointed at the spear. But there was no time. The spear exploded and the ceiling came crashing down in between them as the only way for them to avoid death was the leap backwards and away from each other.

They were separated.

* * *

"Gwen!"

Steve was sure she couldn't hear him. Damn that Loki.

The explosion had caused nearly the whole building to come down. Steve thought for a moment about what he should do. He knew he'd never be able to move all the rubble and make it to the other side. But what if Gwen was stuck under something? He'd have to get to the other side, but it seemed he would have to go all the way around the building. And it also seemed that Loki was nearby if a spear had been thrown in.

So Steve got up and brushed some dirt and dust off of himself. His shield was still on his arm as he made his way for the nearest exit. As he ran around the perimeter of the building, he realized there was no other entrance. The only one he found had been completely blocked by pieces of the building.

Steve was fustrated. He had no way to contact any of the other Avengers and couldn't get to Gwen. And most of all, he was fustrated with himself. Why hadn't he forced her to stay on the helicarrier? If he hadn't given in she wouldn't be trapped in a building that possibly held Loki.

_Damn_ that Loki.

Steve turned around and started heading back to the aircraft which Doctor Banner was still working in.

"Where's Gwendolyn?" asked the doctor.

"We got separated," answered Steve. "You haven't got anything that can get through rubble, do you?"

Bruce smiled. "I have just the right thing."

Steve followed Bruce as the man continued walking. Out of nowhere, his clothes ripped and he transformed into the green rage montser known as the Hulk.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Steve muttered to himself.

The super soldier led the Hulk into the building. Fortunately, the building had been already partially destroyed so that the Hulk did not have to take down a wall to get inside. The Hulk quickly moved into the building due to the fact the entrance was destroyed. He stomped over to the rubble made from the ceiling collapsing and began chucking pieces everywhere, one of them narrowly missing Steve.

It didn't take long for the Hulk to get through to the other side and Steve moved past him when there was an opening.

But Gwen wasn't there. It was empty.

And Steve's heart dropped. It was the same feeling as when he was told that he had been asleep for seventy years.

"Maybe she got out," he said, really only to himself.

But what Steve didn't notice was that her gun was laying far away from them on the floor. And Gwen would've never left her gun.

* * *

Loki laughed as he watched the ceiling come down, separating Gwen and the soldier. It had gone perfectly. A bit too perfectly in fact. But that didn't change the fact that Loki could now get to Gwen.

She coughed as she got up off the ground, groaning slightly from the pain of her fall.

Loki disappeared from his hiding spot and reappeared a little ways away from Gwen, but still inside the building. He watched as she looked around, clutching her side.

"Steve?" she called. "Can you hear me?"

"No, he cannot," said Loki as he stepped out of the shadows.

Gwen whipped around as recognition dawned on her face. She stumbled backwards, unsure of what to do.

"What do you even want from me?" she asked.

"I think it is rather obvious what I want."

Gwen suddenly dove for her gun which was laying on the ground and out of her reach, but Loki lunged and knocked it away from her. She fell on the ground with a thump, her arms still outstretched.

"You could cooperate, you know," said Loki with a smile.

"Or you could just stop trying to take over the world for a change," retorted Gwen, still trying to catch her breath.

"You are a rather clever one, are you not, Gwendolyn?" asked Loki. "It is a shame I must do this."

Before Gwen could react, Loki picked up his foot and kicked her in the head. Gwen went flying into the rubble from the impact and laid on the floor unconcious.

"Actually," mused Loki, "that was a lie."

And then Loki, with the tesseract still in his grasp, picked up Gwen and disappeared.


	10. Chapter Ten

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* * *

**Chapter Ten**

Communications came back up after Steve and the Hulk got back to the aircraft. It had been signaled by Agent Hill who said that technicians were working on the problem. The Hulk had gone around the aircraft and changed back to being Bruce. He came around to the front, holding up his ripped pants around himself to cover his body.

"Hey, Captain, could you hand me those clothes in the back there?" asked Bruce. "I brought them along just in case."

"Yeah, sure."

Steve fetched the clothes and gave them to Bruce who muttered his thanks and went behind the aircraft to change.

"I think the explosions have stopped," came Tony's voice.

"Yeah," agreed Natasha's. "I say we fall back to the aircraft."

"Did anyone find Loki?" asked Clint.

"I think I did," answered Steve. "But he got away."

"Damn," came Tony's voice. "I really wanted to get a punch at him. He destroyed the shawarma place."

Steve rolled his eyes as he waited for everyone to come back. Bruce came around in his new clothes, a purple shirt and black pants, and began looking at the monitors again. It felt like ages before anyone returned, the first being Thor.

"I was unable to stop one of the spears as it hit the floating fortress," he stated. "I believe it may have caused damage."

Steve simply nodded. He couldn't make his voice work.

Clint and Natasha then came, both of them sporting a few cuts. Clint's lip was bleeding. When the walked aboard, Bruce got a few medical supplies and began tending to them.

And, of course, Tony arrived last. He landed on the ground in front of the helicarrier and climbed inside. His mask shot upward, revealing his face.

Steve decided it was time to speak. "Isn't Gwen with any of you?"

They all turned to him and look around as if she were on the aircraft somewhere, hiding.

"Wait," said Tony, turning around, his brow furrowed, "since when do you call her Gwen?"

"We thought she'd be with you," answered Natasha.

"There was an explosion and we got separated," explained Steve.

"She never lets me call her Gwen," continued Tony.

"I've been looking for any trace of her," said Bruce. "I can't find her anywhere."

"D'you think Loki took her?" asked Clint.

There was silence as they all had the same answer in their heads. There was no doubt that Loki had taken Gwen. Steve could feel his heart squeezing in his chest like someone wringing a washcloth. It was his fault she was taken. If she was hurt, or even worse, then it would be all his fault.

"Steve," said Bruce softly, "there was nothing you could've done."

The soldier hadn't realized that everyone was staring at him. There was a frown on his face as he took a seat inside the aircraft.

"Just get us back to the helicarrier," muttered Steve.

There was a slight hesitation before Natasha and Clint took the pilot seats again. Tony and Thor decided to stay onboard. It was completely silent the entire flight back to the helicarrier, even though it was short. It seemed they had flown it close to New York just in case help was needed, which explained how Loki had gotten a spear close to it.

When they landed inside the helicarrier, Steve got out first. He headed straight for the command center, not even bothering to change or clean up. In the center stood Fury. Steve approached him before he knew what he was doing.

"Why did you let her go?" he asked, clearly angry.

Fury turned around to look at Steve but didn't say anything.

"Rodgers, you need to rest," said Fury at last.

"No, I don't," answered Steve. "Gwen got taken by Loki and you look like this isn't a big deal."

"It is a big deal, but we have to repair the helicarrier and tend to the injured citizens of New York."

"But what about Gwen? Are we just going to leave her then?"

"We are already searching for her."

"But it's not your priority, is it?"

Fury did not answer. Instead he sighed and turned back to his monitors.

Steve fought the urge to throw a fit. They weren't doing anything extra to get Gwen back and it was fustrating. And Steve had to get her back. Not just because he felt guilty, but because he genuinely wanted to be with her.

* * *

They watched as Steve stormed off to what seemed to be the command center, but no one stopped him. They all knew he was angry and guilty. It probably wasn't a good idea to try to stop an angry, guilty, super soldier.

Tony approached Bruce and the monitors once Natasha, Clint, and Thor had left.

"Do you think he's going to use her?" he asked. Tony was never really serious, but this was one of those rare situations in which he was actually worried about someone.

Bruce nodded. "Yeah. How, I don't know."

"He's made it personal again," added Tony.

There was silence for a moment.

"Did you know that the Capsicle calls her Gwen?" asked Tony, all seriousness gone now.

Bruce laughed. "I heard him call her that once."

"But why?" Tony sounded like a five year old who was being told no by his parents.

"Well, obviously Gwendolyn likes Rodgers."

"More than us? Banner, she's known us longer."

"Just let it go, Stark. She's had a rough time. She's probably getting over it if she's letting someone call her Gwen again."

Tony couldn't believe himself. Why did he feel so upset about this? Was he really overprotective like Gwen had said? But then he thought of something else.

He was jealous.

Not in a romantic sense, of course. Tony only had romantic feelings for Pepper. But in Gwen's case, she had always given him her attention. She always looked at him when he talked, always listened to him. But ever since she met Steve, she was always paying attention to _him_.

It was stupid and Tony knew it. It just bothered him that Gwen was letting someone she barely knew call her "Gwen" while no one else could because she wasn't ready to be called that again.

Tony was going to scoff, but sighed instead before leaving the aircraft. Maybe he could actually use this to his advantage.

* * *

At first when Gwen started coming back to consciousness, she half expected to wake up in her bed in Chicago. That everything that had happened was some sort of bizarre dream. But unfortunately, when Gwen opened her eyes, it was not a blue room she saw.

Actually, she wasn't really sure where she was.

There was garbage all around and it seemed parts of the walls were coming down. There was dust all over the ground and a table not to far from her with something on top of it, but she couldn't see what. The only light was given off by a dim lightbulb hanging by a wire from the ceiling.

She quickly realized she was sitting on the ground and that her hands were bound behind her back. Gwen instinctively tried to free herself, but it was no use. She was stuck.

Gwen tried to stand up, but found it was rather hard to as she had no use of her hands. So instead she tried to look around for some sort of weapon. She hoped maybe she could find something sharp to free herself and possibly use it to attack whoever brought her here.

And that's when she remembered who had.

Gwen suddenly remembered Loki appearing after being separated from Steve. And now she was vulnerable to anything Loki did. She wondered if maybe she could repeat the accident, but she didn't know if there were other people in the building or if there were some outside.

She heard footsteps approaching and quickly snapped her head to her left to see who it was.

"I see you have finally woken up," said Loki as he came to stand in front of her. "Took you long enough."

"How long has it been?" she asked calmly.

"About a day," answered Loki. He turned to the table to hide a smile.

"What do you even want from me?" asked Gwen.

"You know very well what I want." He picked up the tesseract which had been sitting out of sight from Gwen. Loki turned around and showed it to her.

"When I arrived back here on Midgard," continued Loki, "the tesseract brought me to a land which you call Chicago. I found you, walking from your home to your metal carriage. Mere humans could never feel the energy you possess, but a god could. Then I found that Agent Maxwell. I used the tesseract's power to take his apperance and give him mine as well as send him in my place to Asgard. I then watched you, saw you as your power started to grow without you even knowing it."

"You were watching me?"

"Oh, yes Gwendolyn." Loki walked forward. "I have been watching closely. And I noticed something. Every time you became enraged, your energy became stronger, as did your head pains. So I decided to test your ability."

Gwen looked at the floor, deep in thought. "So that's why you provoked me? To test me?"

"I had to know exactly what you were capable of."

"I hurt people, Loki! That didn't have to happen!"

Loki smiled. "But it did. It would have happened eventually. Your anger had been building up your entire life. I just gave you the push."

"You pushed me over the edge."

"And now you are aware of what you can do. Now you can learn to control it."

Loki turned around to face the table again.

"But what about Agent Thorn?" asked Gwen. "You were supposed to be on that plane and it crashed."

"Oh, James," answered Loki, shaking his head. "I allowed him to cover up for your _accident, _but he was starting to realize that I was not Agent Maxwell. I could not allow him to ruin my plan."

"So you killed him? Just like that?"

"Just like that. I made sure that the jet that was sent was property of Tony Stark. I...tampered with it. That way when it crashed and killed those people, Stark would be to blame."

Gwen wanted to ask why he wanted to frame Tony, but she realized she already knew. Tony had even said so himself.

Vengence.

Gwen could've laughed if the situation hadn't been so grave. How could none of them have seen this before? Her thoughts suddenly changed to Steve. Her heart became heavy with guilt as she realized that he was probably blaming himself for this. It wasn't his fault, it was hers. It was like a never ending cycle of blame, he blamed himself, she blamed herself, Tony blamed everyone but himself...

Okay, so maybe Tony might blame himself as well having finally agreed to letting her go, but she couldn't help but wonder what they were doing at the moment.

"So I'm guessing you're not gonna let me go, are you?" Gwen asked Loki.

The god laughed. "No. Like I said, you can learn to control your powers. But I have decided I am going to give you a little help with that."

Gwen didn't like the way this sounded and her heart started racing. What did he mean by helping her?

She watched as he picked up the unknown object and brought it into the light so that Gwen could see it.

It was a syringe. With a very long needle.

Gwen started wondering how in the world Loki had learned what it was and how to use it, but she rememebered he had spent several months on Earth and most likely had done some research.

She started squirming as he slowly approached, almost savoring the moment. In a desperated attempt to get away, Gwen almost fell over on her side, but she found it was no use. She couldn't get away.

She would've preferred him to hit her, shoot her, anything but using a needle. They were like sunlight and she was a vampire, a silver bullet and she was a werewolf.

It was the one thing that made her mind go completely blank and there was nothing she could do about it no matter how hard she tried to get away. Because when she was at that dreaded hospital and they used needles on her, there was no escape, just like in this situation with Loki. There was no stopping him.

She wondered for a split second as to why he waited for her to be awake to do this. She come up with the answer almost immideiately.

He wanted her to see this.

He wanted her to squirm.

Gwen became still just before the needle made contact with her skin and entered a vein. She knew it would make things worse if she was moving while he injected her with whatever was in the syringe.

She closed her eyes and gave a short cry as she felt the pain of the needle breaking the skin. It wasn't in there a long time, but once whatever was in the syringe was in her veins, it felt as if her body turned cold. It was as though cold water had been injected into her bloodstream and everything turned to ice.

Everything felt strange as though there was someone else in her body. She could still use all the senses, but something was off. Something didn't feel right.

"Let us see if it worked," said Loki who wore his smirk. "Rise."

Gwen felt herself get up off the ground without her making it. Her heart stopped racing, but her blood still felt cold. And then she realized what had happened.

Loki had control of her.


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Once again everyone, thank you so much for all the favorites, alerts, reviews, and EVERYTHING. I have to keep remembering to work on my Harry Potter fic because this one is doing so well :)**

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* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

Things didn't go too well in the days following Gwen's disappearance. Nobody found a trace of her, though it felt to Tony like he and Bruce were the only ones looking for her along with the tesseract. He wondered if Fury was thinking she defected and went willingly with Loki. It was preposterous, but Tony didn't put it past Fury to think that way.

The members of the Avengers were, of course, grim during these days. Most of the time Steve was in the gym probably beating up punching bags because he felt so guilty. This slightly annoyed Tony as he thought Steve would be the one pushing Fury and all the others to do a better job searching. Instead he was rather quiet. And everyone left him alone.

Some people came up with theories of what happened. Tony and Bruce, of course, kept quiet, even though they were pretty sure what was going on. Thor even suggested that Loki took Gwen to Asgard. This didn't go over well with Steve whose face drained of color and he looked as though he could throw up.

Tony actually started spending most of his time on the helicarrier. It was after pushing from Pepper, who was very concerned about Gwen, that made him stay there. He figured, along with Bruce, that wherever the tesseract was, Gwen would be. But they couldn't even find a trace of it. It could've even been on the helicarrier and they wouldn't know.

Tony was getting frustrated.

Most of his frustration was not actually towards Fury, but towards Steve.

He thought the soldier should be doing something to help instead of moping around. And so Tony decided it was time to have a talk. And he knew exactly what he was going to say.

Tony found his way to the gym, while holding a glass of some sort of alcoholic drink, where Steve was using a punching bag. The genius walked inside, unnoticed by Steve.

"Y'know," said Tony to alert his presence, "from the angry hits you're giving that thing, you might want to consider therapy."

Steve turned to shoot a glare at Tony. "What d'you want?"

"What do_ I_ want? I want to get Gwenie back."

"Yeah, well join the club."

Steve threw another punch at the bag.

"Did she tell you why she lets you call her Gwen?" asked Tony.

Steve froze and then looked over again, this time without a glare.

"No," he answered simply.

He watched as Tony walked over to a chair that was randomly sitting in the gym and sat down.

"She'll kill me if I tell you this, but she doesn't need to know," began Tony and then took a sip of his drink. "Gwendolyn started working for me the moment she got out of college. She grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and was the best computer programmer I had ever seen, except when I look in a mirror of course. She moved once I hired her. Two years later, she got a call from her mother. Gwendolyn's father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's."

Steve looked down at the floor and Tony assumed he knew what it was.

"She was going to wait a while before flying back to Florida, but her father was getting worse very fast. And so I paid for her to go just so she would. Her father died one month after she got there. She stayed for a while to be with her mother until she was emotionally stable. Then she came back, but she didn't do very well with her work. She was angry that her father had died. And her headaches got worse. So about five months after he died, her mother called. She had breast cancer. Apparently it was really bad. Her mother supposedly was fed up with doctors and hospitals after a long history of bad luck with them and refused to go in. Her mother was given four weeks to live. I paid for Gwendolyn to go back again. Her mother died three weeks later."

Tony was silent for a moment while he let Steve digest all of this new information.

"Now, when her father was at his worst, he couldn't remember who anyone was. No one. But be could remember his little Gwen. He always called her that because he thought Gwendolyn was a mouth-full. So when she got back she told everyone to never call her Gwen ever again. She said it hurt to much and maybe, just maybe, she'd get over it."

"So what are you getting at?" asked Steve.

"What I'm saying is that she must really like you for her to let you call her Gwen. And right now, Loki has his dirty little god hands on her."

Steve didn't respond.

"And to find her," continued Tony suppressing an eye roll, "we need a plan. And to have a _plan_, we need a Captain."

Steve looked up at this as he finally understood what Tony was saying.

"So what are we waiting for then?" asked Steve as he unhooked the punching bag. "Let's go find Gwen."

* * *

Tony had gone back to the labs while Steve cleaned up as quickly as he could. Tony had a large smile on his face, happy that he was successful. Steve had the reaction Tony had wanted.

Bruce was sliding his fingers along a monitor when Tony approached him.

"Guess what I did," the genius said playfully.

"I'm not sure I want to know," answered the doctor. He looked down a clipboard and scribbled something down.

"I told Rogers about Gweneth's parents."

Bruce turned to look at him with an expression that read, "Are you insane?"

"Don't worry," said Tony, putting his hands in the air as if he thought Bruce was going to turn mean and green. "It had to be done."

"Gwendolyn's going to kill you," Bruce said with a sigh.

"I had to do it. Someone had to say something to the old man."

"But why her parents?"

Tony sighed this time. "He needed the push."

It wasn't long before the lab door opened again revealing Steve, suited up in his patriotic tights.

"Suit up," he told the duo, confidence radiating off of him. "We're leaving."

And with a nod, they headed off.

* * *

It had been far too easy. But Loki didn't mind. It made his life easier in fact.

But Loki could not wipe away the smirk he wore on his face. It had been so simple to get Gwen away from the soldier. And now he had her. And best of all, she was under his control.

He had made sure that she would be seen by sending her to an area of the warehouse that was visible by the sky. He knew that if SHIELD saw him, they would take a short amount of time to get to him, but if they saw Gwen, it would be even shorter.

Loki had no way of knowing what their plan would be, but Gwen seemed to have an idea.

"Gwendolyn!"

The blonde approached him as he sat at his little table, simply admiring the tesseract. Her arms were at her sides. Her eyes were no longer green, but entirely made of the color white. There was nothing else but the creamy color.

"Yes, Master Loki?" she asked in a monotone.

"Have you finished with the traps?" he asked.

"No," she answered. "I am perfecting them."

Loki's smile grew wider. "Excellent work, Gwendolyn."

"Thank you, Master Loki."

Loki watched as Gwen turned around and walked out of the room. According to her, she knew their weaknesses. She said that she could make traps for the Avengers for when they came. And Loki assumed they would be coming. Unfortunately for them, they weren't going to be leaving. If everything went as planned, and Loki had no doubt it would, he would have Gwen _and _the super soldier and all of the other Avengers would be dead. They would all begin rotting under the remains of the warehouse while Loki laughed at their will to fight for a mere girl. And so Loki got up out of his chair and disappeared to where he would be meeting Gwen that night and began to wait.

* * *

"Sir!"

Nick Fury turned towards the source of the shout where a man had stood up from his computer.

"What?" asked the tall man dressed in black.

"We've got a hit on Agent Gwendolyn Powers," answered the agent quickly.

Fury quickly strode over to the monitor to see. The picture was grainy and it was hard to make out what he was looking at exactly, but there was no denying that it was Gwen he was looking at. She was inside a warehouse, the same warehouse that they had seen Loki leave from several days prior.

Why hadn't they thought of that?

"Call in the others," ordered Fury. "We need to make sure that the tesseract and Loki are there as well."

"But what about Gwendolyn?" asked Agent Hill worriedly.

"Well, she doesn't look too unhappy to be there, does she?"

Several other agents leaned around their monitors to look at the picture of Gwen. To all of their suprise, she was smiling. And it wasn't a friendly smile either.

"Director Fury," said Agent Hill slowly, "you don't think she's working for Loki, do you?"

"If she is, she isn't doing it knowingly."

However, it was not Fury that answered. All those in the command center were now accompanied by Tony, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Thor, and Steve. It had been Steve who spoke.

And they were already suited up.

"Did I _tell_ you to suit up?" asked Fury who was clearly feeling furious.

"No, sir," answered Steve. "But we're going to get Gwen."

"Negative, Captain." Fury was feeling irritated now. He did _not _need Steve to let his feelings for the girl get in the way.

"Well, it doesn't really matter because we're gonna go anyway," said Tony with a smirk on his face.

"Listen, we have to make sure it's safe-"

"We can't wait any longer, sir," argued Steve. "We're going no matter what you say."

Fury shook his head. "If you go, you are _expected _to come back with the tesseract."

"We can't promise that," replied Tony. "We're going for Gwen. She's our priority."

"The tesseract-"

"-will come to us in time," finished Thor. "Loki is using Lady Gwendolyn for something we are unaware of. If we can get her back, we may be able to find out what exactly that is."

Fury could see there was no more point in arguing. There was no stopping these people. So the man sighed.

"Just don't get yourselves killed."

They all nodded to him and left the command center to reach an aircraft.

"She better be worth it," Fury mumbled to himself as he went back to his postition in the center.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Hello everyone!**

**I would just like to warn you all that I will NOT be posting tomorrow. I don't have school and my mom and I are having a movie marathon consisting of _Iron Man, Thor, Captain America_, and _Chronicle_ (Okay, _Chronicle_ isn't a Marvel film, but we were going to see it in theaters, but we went to the _Woman in Black_ instead.)**

**I will try to post on Saturday or Sunday if possible.**

**aaroniteXkryptonite: Thank you! **

**LittleMissMia123: Hahaha "because you're worth it" *cue hair flip in the wind***

**KatiKates: Thank you very much!**

**Itsgoose2u: I'm glad too haha.**

**yesiamweird: I'm so sorry to hear that. My grandpa died when I was three and he had Alzheimer's (which is where I got the idea from) and he couldn't remember anyone but me. I was his little Mandy (his nickname for me). Oh, and thank you!**

**DarkRulerKida: Haha, I'm glad you're amped!**

**Marinebrat0311: Thank you!**

**Fanno . Anderson-Smythe: Haha yay! Thanks so much! (also, it would not let me properly type out your penname, so excuse the spaces in there)**

**AngelVamp6688: Haha Fury can be so silly sometimes, can't he?**

**amrawo: Thank you!**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

The coordinates of the warehouse in which Gwen had been seen were transferred to the aircraft where Steve and all the others were in. They didn't take long to lift off and leave the helicarrier knowing that Gwen did not have control of herself. Steve wasn't quite sure why Tony and Bruce seemed a bit on edge about this, but he assumed they were simply worried about her too. But Steve wasn't stupid. He could tell that they knew something he didn't. But he wasn't about to ask. It wasn't the time to.

Steve slid his shield on his arm as the aircraft descended from the night sky. They weren't landing right next to the warehouse, just in case Loki decided to make a run for it at the sight of them. Instead, they were actually landing in another dock nearby that was also abandoned. Before they opened the door, Steve turned to them all.

"I say we split up," said Steve in his Captain voice. "Tony, you start looking for her on the upper floors. Take Barton to the top to keep a lookout. Thor, go to the middle part of the building. Agent Romanoff, you go on the lower levels. Banner, keep an eye on all those monitors."

"Aye aye, Captain," answered Tony while giving a mock salute. "Let's go, Boy on Fire."

The door to the aircraft opened and Clint and Tony walked out. As silent as possible, Tony grabbed onto Clint, who had his bow in his hand and his arrows on his back, and flew up into the sky and in the direction of the building.

Bruce sat down in a chair in front of some monitors. Steve had no idea what any of them meant, but he hoped that they were searching for Gwen. It would make it easier if they knew what floor she was on. From what Steve could see, the warehouse was at least ten floors, most likely more. But with the team they had, it couldn't be that hard to find her.

Thor took off for the warehouse and Steve walked with Natasha as they made their way towards the building.

"Do you know what you're doing?" she asked him, loading a new magazine into her handgun.

"I sure hope so," answered Steve.

"I'll start on the first floor then."

Steve watched as Natasha simply walked through the front door. He did not follow, of course, and jumped up to a fire escape staircase on the side of the building. It led to a window on the second floor. Carefully, Steve climbed inside, aware of the broken glass that littered the floor. The room was very dark, but he didn't have anything to use for a light except wait for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. On the concrete walls were graffiti of different gang symbols. It made Steve wonder why Loki decided to hide here. But then again, that was the most disturbing part.

Loki had been hiding.

It was obvious the god was up to no good. And so Steve continued on, though even more cautious.

He left the room he came into and found himself in a hallway. The soldier slowly moved forward, trying his best not to make too much noise. As he continued, he found that several rooms were blocked by rubble. Why the place was so bad was beyond Steve, but he tried his best to get into them anyway. He found that it was no use, there was just too much in the way.

Steve passed what looked like a gym which held several different cardio machines and a broken television. He looked for any sign of Gwen, but it seemed hopeless. Then suddenly, a cardboard box that was sitting on a small table in the gym fell off of its seat. Heart racing, Steve walked over, hoping to find some sort of sign, only to find an ugly rat scampering away with a squeal. Sighing, Steve left and went on to the next room.

* * *

"You've got quite a grip there," joked Clint as Tony placed him on the roof of the warehouse.

"I'm sorry the flight wasn't as pleasant as you wanted it to be, your highness," retorted Tony.

Clint smirked and put on some nightvision goggles. He could now easily see Tony standing next to him, though everything was green. Clint couldn't help but be slightly reminded of a Tom Clancy video game he had once played on his Xbox.

"I'll be on the floors right below your feet," stated Tony. "If the monsters scare you, just call for me."

"Yes, mother."

Clint could nearly hear Tony smirk before he flew off and into a window on the top floor. There was a crash from what Clint assumed was the Iron Man suit breaking through a window.

The archer then turned his attention to the night sky. There was nothing in sight, but just in case, Clint reached back for a prepared arrow and attached it to the string of his bow. He pointed the weapon down, but he was ready for anything that was going to come at him.

There was a sudden quiet bang and Clint whipped around, his bow up and his arrow aimed at whatever was waiting for him. But all he saw was air. Clint laughed to himself. He was being paranoid. It was probably Tony shooting a ray at a rat or something. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. There was nothing worse for Clint than that feeling. Actually, being possessed by Loki was worse, but the feeling of being watched was a close second. Clint was the one that watched people, not the other way around.

He pivoted on his heel several times, waiting for someone to show themselves. Clint didn't dare say anything just in case no one actually knew he was there. But he doubted that.

Out of no where, a beeping noise started. Curious, Clint followed the noise to where it grew louder and louder until he found the source of the beeping behind a broken satalite dish.

It was a bomb.

And it was set to go off in two seconds.

Unfortunately, it took those two seconds for Clint's brain to comprehend what was going on and therefore he had no time to get away.

The bomb went off and Clint closed his eyes as he felt himself falling through the roof. He kept a grip on his bow and arrows as he fell. He hit the ground of the floor below him with a _thump_ and groaned in pain. After laying on the floor for a few moments to regain his strength, Clint forced himself up but using a nearby table for support. His hand touched something cold and Clint looked over to see a syringe filled with some sort of blue substance. Clint's first thought was that this was left over from that drug bust, but he had never heard of something _blu__e_ before. He picked up and examined it. Could this be Loki's? He doubted it, but it didn't look like something average that you could find at any home or even a hospital. Or at least a _normal_ hospital.

"Hello, Clint."

Clint turned around in a flash to see Gwen standing behind him, still in her SHIELD uniform and her blonde curls messy and covered in dust. But her eyes...her eyes were glazed over. No, it was more than that. They were just completely white. In the moment Clint took to feel shocked, he was surprised when Gwen suddenly hit him in the head with a metal object, causing him to fall unconscious.

One Avenger down, five to go.

* * *

Tony heard the explosion right away.

"Guys," he said so that the rest of the team could hear him, "did you all just hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Natasha's voice.

"That explosion. It came from above me."

"Did Barton do it?" asked Steve's voice.

"I don't know. I think a better question is, was it directed at Barton?"

"It must have been," said Thor, "but right now I believe I am looking at some sort of torture device that is shaped like a casket."

"Thor," came Bruce's voice, "that's a tanning bed."

Tony smirked behind his mask. He knew that Gwen would be stiffling a laugh at the situation. But alas, she was still under Loki's control.

"What an odd way to tan," answered Thor.

"I'll go check it out," said Tony.

"No," said Steve sternly. "I will."

Tony scoffed. "I'm closer to it. Why should you get to go?"

"Stark, just let me go."

Steve's voice sounded different this time. Tony had never heard so much confidence used in one sentence. The genius could only assume that Steve wanted to go because he probably thought Gwen was there and wanted to face her himself. It was stupid.

"Rogers," said Bruce, "she won't recognize you. And if she does, that won't change anything."

"I know," answered Steve. "Trust me, I want to go check it out."

After a moment of silence, Tony sighed. "Get going then, bald eagle."

"Thank you, Stark."

Tony didn't respond. He knew he'd have to get used to this whole, "Steve is ready to give his life for her" thing, but it seemed odd to him. The two barely knew each other. However, they were both awkward, they were both weird, Steve being out of time and Gwen being more proper than many other women these days, and they were both stubborn. So Tony supposed that made up for barely knowing each other. It was like the two had some sort of chemistry, some sort of connection, that Tony didn't have with Gwen. That _no one_ had with Gwen. Except for Steve. And so Tony continued on, his feet clanking on the hard floor, slightly hoping that Steve would find Gwen and save her instead of anyone else.

* * *

It hadn't taken Steve too long to get to the roof. He hadn't passed any of the other Avengers on his way and everyone remained silent as they all creeped around the warehouse. As Steve opened the door that let him out to the roof, he felt the cool night air hit his face. And then there was a bit of a smell that seemed like smoke. Steve followed it until he could easily see where part of the roof had exploded. There was a hole in the building where the explosion occured and Steve looked down to see a room. He leapt down inside of it.

There was a single light illuminating the room apart from the stars and the moon shining through the hole in the ceiling. The lightbulb dangled from a wire. Nearby there was a table, which was empty. Steve looked around and saw no sign of anyone, not even Clint. Maybe the archer was okay and he had run off or something. But then again, he would've responded to their voices in his earpiece. Steve couldn't help but think that someone had attacked him.

The soldier was on edge, but that didn't seem to help him when something made impact on his back and nearly knocked him over. Whatever had grabbed hold of him got off as he regained his balance and turned around, his shield up.

It was Gwen.

Steve immediately noticed her eyes. He loved the bright green color they were, but he no longer saw that. It worried him.

"Hello, Steve," she said. Her voice wasn't quite hers. Well, yes, it _was_ hers, but there was a layer of ice that covered it. It was cool like Loki's.

"Gwen, you aren't in your right mind," said Steve. He lowered his shield and his ear felt empty suddenly. He noticed Gwen held his earpiece in her hand. She must've grabbed it when she attacked him. Following his gaze, Gwen looked down at the earpiece and then dropped it on the floor. She picked up her boot and then stomped on the device. Then, she looked back up at Steve and moved her other hand into a better view for him.

She held a syringe.

"Don't make me do this the hard way, Steve," she teased, a smirk on her lips.

"Stop, Gwen," continued Steve. "We can make you better."

"What makes you think that?"

"You're under Loki's control. You don't know what you're doing."

"I think I know what I'm doing, _Steve_."

She jumped forward again and Steve was caught by surprise. He hadn't actually expected her to be good at hand-to-hand combat. Steve, however, refused to hurt her and dodged her moves as best as he could.

At one point, though, Gwen made a jump from the table, the syringe pointed so that it would get him in the neck. Steve had no idea what was in it, but he was sure that he didn't want to be injected with it. With as little force as possible, he caught Gwen and pushed her up against a nearby wall with his shield. It therefore made it hard for her to reach him with the shield in between them.

Gwen looked like she was slightly out of breath, but the creepy smile she wore started to fade. Suddenly, her eyes slowly turned back to normal. They were as wide as saucers and full of determination.

"Steve!" she exclaimed. "You have to leave!"

Realizing that Gwen was possibly fighting Loki's control over her, he let the shield fall off his arm and grabbed Gwen as she started to fall as well.

"I know, we can get you out," answered Steve a bit excitedly.

"No, Steve! You don't understand! You need to leave now!"

Steve shook his head. "We've got to get you out."

"Listen!" she shouted. "I've been saving up my energy so that when you came here I could tell you this! I've rigged the building with explosives. I was supposed to get you with the syringe and then you'd fall under Loki's control and we'd leave to go find him. Then I'd blow up the building, killing everyone else inside."

"Then let's go!"

"No, wait! I have to go to Loki! He'll be suspicious if you all just suddenly take off and I don't come back to him! Then once you're all clear I can blow it up!"

"Forget Loki!" insisted Steve. "He's insane, let's go!"

"Steve, please."

Even though Steve had not known Gwen for very long, he was pretty sure she had never had such pleading in her voice and eyes before. But it wasn't just like he could leave her here. What if she never had enough energy to fight Loki's control again? They didn't know where he was going after this.

But just as Steve was figuring out how to force Gwen out of the building, her eyes became completely white again. The smirk was on her face again and just as she raised the hand which held the syringe, a force pushed her aside and Steve could hear her head make impact with the nearby table, knocking her out cold.

Steve turned to see Clint standing there, blood running from his nose.

"What was that for?" asked Steve, frowning.

"I didn't think you were gonna do it," answered Clint, still looking at Gwen. "Now we can get her out of here."

Steve leaned down and picked her up after placing his shield on his back. Clint reached down and picked up the syringe.

"Banner can look at this," said Clint when Steve eyed him curiously.

The two of them walked out of the room, Gwen placed in Steve's arms. They nearly ran right into Tony.

"Hey, what's taking you so-"

He stopped talking when he saw Gwen.

"What d'you know," he muttered. "You knocked her out."

"That was me," said Clint, raising his left hand. "Rogers wouldn't hurt her."

Tony looked back up at Steve, though the soldier didn't know it as Tony still had his mask down.

"Okay," said Tony so that everyone could hear through their earpieces, "I found Rogers and Barton. They've got Gwendolyn. She's unconcious, but alive. Let's get back to the aircraft."

And with that, Steve and Clint followed Tony out of the building.

* * *

Why were they taking off?

Loki sat on a broken down boat as he watched the aircraft that had landed near the warehouse lift off and fly off towards the night sky. But why weren't they in the building? Where was Gwen? Why was the warehouse standing?

The god of mischief and lies stood up and felt anger running through his veins. Gwen had failed him. How, he was not sure. But she had. And they obviously had her back.

He had seen the explosion on the rooftop that he knew was made for Agent Barton. Gwen had said they'd stick him on the rooftop. Loki had been happy, or at least not irritated, when he saw that and knew that one Avenger had been taken care of. And so he continued to sit in his boat and wait.

But now the aircraft was gone and the building was standing.

Loki snapped the fishing rod that he had been twirling in his hands in half. He had Gwen. He _had_ her. And now she was gone. All that power she possessed was now out of his hands. Even having the tesseract sitting next to him wasn't enough.

So with a snarl, Loki disappeared to begin planning once more.

And this time, he would not fail.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Happy Saturday everyone!**

**First of all, the movie marathon was great. I also realized how in love I am with Tom Hiddleston because my heart wouldn't stop racing every time he was on the screen. He's got such a nice face.**

**Anyway, _Chronicle _was very disappointing. **

**So, just to clear things up about this chapter, let me explain before you read it. Gwen is currently unconscious, but is sort of remembering the "accident." Yes, this is the account of the event which is mentioned so many times. And for those of you who have seen _Chronicle_, I did not copy that. I wrote this before I watched it and realized that some parts are quite similar.**

**Also, when it says Agent Maxwell, this is actually Loki, but since Gwen didn't know that then, he is referred to as Agent Maxwell.**

**LittleMissMia123: Haha thanks. I could totally picture the Tony/Clint interaction in my head. **

**aaroniteXkryptonite: Now you no longer have to wait!**

**garnet86: Thank you very much, I'm glad they're in character! I always worry about that. **

**KiyUzumaki: Thank you so much! **

**Itsgoose2u: I can honestly see Clint being like, "You're welcome" if she were to mention how much it hurt haha.**

**amrawo: Thank you!**

**Fanno . Anderson-Smythe: Haha, silly Loki never learns. **

**yesiamweird: I'm glad you liked it! I just love how lost Thor is on Earth and couldn't help myself.**

**DarkRulerKida: Haha I'm glad you think so!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

The day had not been going well. First of all, Gwen dropped the mug she was using for her morning coffee on her new hardwood floors. The drink was everywhere and the mug was broken. Cursing under her breath, she stepped over it in her now coffee soaked slippers and cleaned it up as fast as she could. She wasn't running late, of course. Gwen was never late.

The second thing that happened was she found that one of the tires of her car was leaking because she had apparently driven over a bolt laying in the street and it managed to lodge itself into the tire. So Gwen had to call and set up an appointment to get the tire fixed and try to get as much air as she could back into the tire.

That's when Gwen thought the day wasn't going to get any worse.

Boy was she wrong.

Gwen went through her daily tasks before finally backing out of the driveway of her one story home. She drove the appropriate route to the SHIELD base in Chicago, careful not to draw to much attention to her car as she randomly turned on a dirt road that no one ever went on.

Eventually, after walking through some woods, she approached a bunker that resembled something out of a Star Wars movie. It was covered in moss and leaves as though it had been unattended for years.

After letting the scanner identify her eye, the doors of the bunker slid open and she stepped inside, thankful that it had air conditioning on such a hot summer day. She strode forward and came up to steel doors. She reached her right arm out to press a button on that side of the door. The white button light up and with a ding, the doors slid open, just like the entrance to the bunker.

Gwen stepped inside, her hands grasped together behind her back. The doors slid shut and she felt the elevator begin to descend.

"Good morning, Agent Powers," said a smooth, female robotic voice.

"Same to you, Rosa," answered Gwen.

"Agent Maxwell would like to speak with you, when it is possible."

Gwen sighed and closed her eyes as she leaned against the wall behind her. "Tell him I'll be there in an hour."

"Of course, Agent Powers."

The doors slid open at last and Gwen opened her eyes to see the facility. She stepped out of the lift and onto the white floor. On either side of her were walls made of glass and in each room were different agents working on experiments and computers with touch screens.

She passed several different halls, but continued walking forward. Soon, the walls were no longer made of glass, but of steel. Gwen finally came to the last chance to go a different direction and took a right. After passing two doors on the left, she entered the last one in the hall by opening the white door and closing it behind her after stepping over the threshold.

Gwen's office looked very out of place within the facility. Most areas looked as though they were occupied with germaphobes and were completely white. So white that it hurt Gwen's eyes to look at. So, she had decided to changed things up a bit. The floor of her office was replaced with hardwood floors and her walls were painted a nice light brown. Against the wall to her right was a desk that took up a corner and half of the two walls on either side of it. The top was messy with papers thrown all over and a computer monitor that was barely visible under the massive amount of books, documents and pencils she kept within her office walls.

On the opposite side of the door was a large bookshelf where Gwen kept every book she needed down in the facility and also folders and three-ring binders that contained vital information that she would need to use if she was sent on a mission for SHIELD.

Gwen's job was to investigate minor supernatural disturbances. She was basically second to Agent Phil Couslon who had always been sent for the big ones, like when a god from Asgard came to Earth or when a super soldier had been found, frozen in the Arctic.

However, Gwen still got to see some action and kept everything as neat as she could, just in case she needed it in short notice.

"Agent Powers?" came the voice of Rosa, the computer system that controlled the SHIELD Chicago base.

"Yes, Rosa?" answered Gwen as she took out a certain folder from under her pile on her desk.

"Agent Maxwell says he needs to see you now."

"Can't it wait?" Gwen groaned.

"He says it is important."

"Alright, alright. Where is he?"

"In Sector F-8, Omega Lab."

Gwen paused for a moment, deep in thought, looking up from her now open folder. "Did he tell you why he's in there?"

"No, ma'am."

Sighing, Gwen closed the folder and tossed it back on her desk.

"Thanks, Rosa."

"You are welcome, Agent Powers."

Scowling, Gwen left her office and went back the way she came. However, while still in the steel wall section of the facility, she took a right down a different hallway and approached a steel door with a sign that read:

_Section F (1-8)_

_Energy Experiments_

She placed one of her thumbs on a red scanner and heard the door unlock once she was identified. She went inside and the door automatically closed behind her. She continued forward, each step yelling determination. She finally reached a room which read _Omega_ and let her thumb be scanned again to enter. Inside she found Agent Maxwell, his dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearing a white lab coat, standing over a few vials sitting on a table.

"What d'you want?" asked Gwen bluntly.

Agent Maxwell smirked. "You get right to the point, don't you, Powers?"

Gwen did not smile as she approached the man. He refused to look up at her so she continued.

"What are you even doing in here, anyway? You work in Section C, not F. And to be in the Omega Lab? Are you joking?"

His smile grew wider. "I do love myself a few jokes."

"This isn't funny! Everything in here is dangerous!"

"Does your statement extend to both you and me?"

Gwen paused for a moment as she watched Agent Maxwell pour some sort of red liquid from one vial into another vial which held a green liquid.

"You're not even a scientist," she stated.

"Yes, and neither are you."

She wasn't quite sure what he meant by this. Unless he knew she had been in the same exact lab only one month prior. She could remember it clearly in her head.

_"Agent Powers, Director Fury would like to speak with you," said Rosa._

_Gwen paused as she looked at the pill which laid on the counter before her. She had gotten it from Tony Stark who had finally come up with a new formula for medication for her. She was, of course, using SHIELD's advanced technology to try to replicate it in hopes that this one worked much better than the last one. _

_However, Gwen had told Fury when he called her house the night before, telling her of the situation that was going on in New York, that she was sick and therefore could not speak with him nor travel to New York._

_"Rosa, I told you, I'm not supposed to be here," the blonde finally answered at last. _

_"I will tell him you are not here."_

_"You do that."_

But Gwen figured that Agent Maxwell was just playing with her mind. He had a strange way with words.

"I know that," answered Gwen at last, "which is why we should be leaving."

"Do you not remember that I wanted to speak with you?" asked Agent Maxwell. He set the two vials down in a holder and turned to face her. "Or have your head pains made you _forgetful."_

That was something Agent Maxwell should have never said.

Gwen could already feel anger bubbling inside of her, but she ignored the tiny voice in her head which said that she needed to calm down. But Agent Maxwell went too far. It was almost as if he was trying to aggravate her on purpose.

"Forgetful?" she asked. Her voice was dangerously quiet. "Forgetful?"

"Well, I do say it runs in your family-"

"How dare you!" she yelled. "You don't think that I still remember having to see my father not know who is wife is because you think he simply _forgot_?"

Agent Maxwell's smirk appeared on his face. "I never said that, did I?"

"I know what you're thinking!" Gwen's throat started hurting, but she ignored it. "Do you know what my life has been like? Now I don't have parents to talk to about anything if I wished to which includes the head pains!"

The lights above them started flickering. Gwen didn't notice it, but Agent Maxwell did. But he simply glanced up and then looked back at her face as if it were a daily occurance, which it most certainly was not.

"I never got the chance at a normal childhood!" Gwen continued. "I was a freak!"

Lines began appearing on her face as though she was made of glass and she was starting to break. The skin around her eyes turned very dark until it was completely black. Her lips turned very pale until they were almost white.

"I lost the two people I could ever talk to you and make it sound like such a joke!"

The lines on her face were now able to be seen on her hands and neck. Under her clothes, they appeared all around her body. Her skin faded to a very pale color except for the darkness around her eyes.

"Because, dear Gwendolyn," answered Agent Maxwell, "everything is a joke to me. Including your grief."

And that was it. That was what finally sent her over the edge.

There was a moment of silence like the calm before a storm. And then it all happened.

A loud sonic boom was heard and everything exploded. All the vials, beakers, everything in the Omega Lab exploded. The counters and all the other devices used for experiments were shot away from Gwen as the energy explosion she caused hit them. To anyone watching, it was like a superhero movie. For a split second as the boom sounded, a force of energy shot from Gwen's body, which was the reason everything was being destroyed.

In all the other labs, the same thing happened to them. Every worker covered their faces, but it was no use. Many of them got hit by the glass which was being thrown from the broken vials and beakers. A few people were thrown into the walls around them by flying counters. They became pinned where they sat.

In the Omega Lab, Agent Maxwell had been thrown back into a nearby wall. He did not fall unconscious, despite the hit he got on his head, and instead watched with a smile as Gwen fell unconscious before she hit the floor. All the energy she had in her body was used up. And although Agent Maxwell did not understand how she did what she did, he couldn't help but realize how powerful she was. Especially after he called for medical aid and followed the doctors out of the room to see that Gwen's explosion had destroyed nearly the entire facility.

It was an accident Gwen would never forget.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a fabulous weekend. However, I'm not sure if I will post tomorrow with it being Memorial Day and all and my parents like to make smores and stuff. So anyway...**

**garnet86: Thank you! I know, even I get irritated with Agent Maxwell haha.**

**LittleMissMia123: Hahaha I see you are having feelings now, are you not? Thanks you by the way.**

**amrawo: Thank you!**

**Itsgoose2u: Thank you! And yeah, poor Gwen. I even feel bad for writing that. It just sort of happened. **

**DarkRulerKida: Haha that's a great term "epic sauce." Thanks!**

**MysticRyder: Thanks for pointing that stuff out for me :)**

**Fanno . Anderson-Smythe: Thank you very much! And I'm sorry for lack of Steve. Trust me, he'll be appearing much more throughout the rest of the story.**

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

Once the aircraft landed back in the helicarrier, Steve insisted that Gwen immediately be taken to the Medical Ward. Bruce had reassured the flustered soldier that she would be taken care of, but Steve continued to pester him.

After Gwen was out of Steve's sight, he wasn't quite sure what to do. He wasn't allowed to be there when they were putting her through tests and fixing her up. Steve had no idea what they had to do, but he just wanted them to do it all. He wanted Gwen to get better. He wasn't going to be happy until she was awake and not trying to kill him.

And then a day went by.

Bruce insisted that Steve go to sleep, but sleep did not come. He was far too worried and besides, it was sometimes hard to sleep when he had done so for seventy years.

So when Steve couldn't take it any longer, he headed to the Medical Ward where Gwen was the only one laying on a bed, still asleep, with monitors hooked up to her to tell how her health was and if her heart was beating. Which it was, thankfully.

"How's she doing?" asked Steve as he approached the Bruce as he stood next to Gwen's bed looking at what appeared to be x-rays.

"She's stable," answered Bruce.

"What d'you mean...stable?"

Bruce sighed. "There's a lot she will have to explain to you when she wakes up. Let's just say she isn't exactly normal. She's always refused to go through tests, but since we've done it without her knowing, I now understand her headaches and why she lost control of herself several months ago."

Steve was silent as he took this in.

"Then did you figure anything out?" he asked at last.

Bruce smiled. "Yes, I did. And although I don't quite understand it, whatever this is, it's fascinating."

"Okay...d'you mind explaining it to me?"

Bruce nodded and stood next to Steve, holding out the x-rays. It looked as though they were pictures of Gwen's brain.

"Look at this line here," ordered Bruce as his finger followed a line that went around the outside of her brain. It wasn't touching it at all, but was almost hovering around it. "That's not something that's supposed to be here. At first I thought maybe it was just a mistake in the x-ray, but it's not. It's almost like some sort of membrane."

"A what?"

"It's the outside part of a cell that can let things through and keep things out. Anyway, after some close study of this, I've come to a conclusion. It's an energy shield."

Steve squinted his eyes and looked at Gwen and then back at the x-ray. "What?"

"I have no idea how it got there but she's had it all her life. It's why she has all of those headaches. This shield is constantly working, keeping things that aren't supposed to be there out."

"So then why was Loki able to get inside her head?"

Bruce walked over to a counter that was next to Gwen's bed and picked up the syringe. It no longer had the blue substance inside of it as Bruce had been testing it.

"Because of this," he answered. "Loki knew that Gwendolyn's biggest fear is needles. It made her vulnerable."

"But if this shield works on its own, then how was she vulnerable?" asked Steve.

"It seems it works unless she's got all of her focus on something else. When she saw the syringe, she must have panicked or something. I believe the shield must've made an opening or dissolved or something like that which allowed the tesseract's energy to go through her blood stream and into her brain."

"Wait a minute," said Steve slowly. "The tesseract?"

"It seems Loki found a way to insert some of the cube's energy into the syringe. I have no way of knowing if he knew about this shield around her brain, but if he did, he planned it all perfectly."

"But she was able to fight against it. She had said she was saving up her energy or something."

"That's probably true. Maybe she realized she needed to use the energy that she can control in order to fight against the tesseract's own energy."

"Control energy?"

"Well, like I said, that's for her to explain."

It was silent execpt for the beeping of the monitors.

"She would've had extensive brain damage," said Bruce softly. "If it weren't for that energy shield, she could be brain dead."

Steve's heart dropped as he realized how lucky Gwen was.

"And there's no way to get rid of the tesseract's energy," added the doctor.

Steve turned to Bruce in alarm. "So when she wakes up, she'll still be under Loki's control?"

"Nope. That shield is taking care of it."

"How?"

"At first I thought it was disposing of the energy, but it's not. It's taking it in."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning she's getting stronger. Not only will she have this energy power within her, but also part of the tesseract. It'll become a part of her."

"So what do we do now?"

Bruce sighed. "We wait. She needs to rest and restore the energy she used to fight against Loki's control. It won't be more than a few days. Last time she was out for two weeks and she used a lot more energy then."

Steve took a deep breath. Gwen would be fine. She'd wake up and he could talk to her again. He didn't really care about finding out what this "accident" was. It was the past and it didn't matter now. But obviously Gwen wasn't comfortable about it if Bruce refused to tell.

The soldier took a chair that was sitting nearby and dragged it next to Gwen's bed. It screeched as the legs of the chair rubbed against the hard floor. Without caring, Steve took hold of her hand. It felt warm and it made Steve feel better knowing that.

Bruce, feeling slightly uncomfortable, turned to leave. "If you need anything, just call for me."

Steve nodded. "Thanks, Doctor Banner."

And so Bruce left the medical ward, leaving Steve and Gwen alone inside.

* * *

"And she hid all this from us, why?"

Bruce suddenly wasn't quite sure if telling Fury about Gwen's condition was such a good idea. He was sitting in the conference room with Fury, Tony, Natasha, Thor and Clint. Steve refused to leave the medical ward just in case Gwen woke up.

"Well, she didn't really know," defended Bruce.

"But obviously she knew something was up in that head of hers," answered Fury.

"Fury," chipped in Tony whose feet were up on the conference table and his hands behind his head, "do you not realize that Gwenie's just been used by Loki to try to kill us?"

"I know that, Stark, but she was hiding information from SHIELD. And I'd like to know who else was."

Tony raised his hand and Natasha, who was sitting next to him, rolled her eyes.

Fury turned back to Bruce who nodded. "We were only respecting her wishes."

"It doesn't matter what her wishes are," said Fury. "She is considered dangerous and needs to be questioned."

"Hey, you could question her now if you'd like, but she probably won't give you any answers seeing as she's, y'know, unconscious after being under Loki's control," retorted Tony.

Fury ran a hand over his face. "If you don't want her to be under arrest, then you need to come up with a compromise."

"I've already got an idea," said Bruce. "I was hoping that I could monitor her for at least an hour a day. I don't know anyone with powers like hers, so I suppose I could help her try to control them. That way she won't have an accident."

Bruce had almost added "again" at the end, but was able to stop himself. Fury didn't need to know about that. It had been covered up so well.

"Alright," said Fury after a moment of silence. "But if she loses control, I will have to take action. You're all dismissed."

Fury left, his trench coat flying behind him. Thor left after Clint and Natasha, leaving Tony still sitting in his spot. Bruce began getting up.

"You're not just going to help her control her powers so she doesn't unintentionally hurt someone, are you?" asked Tony with that rare seriousness in his voice.

"No," answered Bruce who had stopped in the doorway. "Loki's probably beyond furious. He'll be planning something big."

"And you think she'll be able to stop him?"

Bruce nodded. "The only thing is, I don't know how drained she'll be at the end."

"That's what I'm worried about."

Bruce looked at the ground and then back up again. "I'm just hoping that if she can practice, she'll be able to overcome anything."

"You can't expand someone's energy supply, Banner."

"I know. But we have to try."

And so Bruce left the conference room where Tony sat in thought for a few minutes before leaving.

* * *

Steve didn't know how long he was in the medical ward. He didn't want to leave until she woke up. He wanted to apologize for getting separated from her when Loki attacked New York City.

He hadn't felt this way about someone since Peggy Carter. Of course, he wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing. At first when Steve learned that the last time he was awake was seventy years ago, he refused to let go of the idea that the Peggy he knew was out there waiting for him to come dance with her. But after months went by, he finally accepted that this was a different time. Peggy could even be dead. Steve didn't wish to know, so he didn't ask for anyone at SHIELD to look her up for him.

But now there was Gwen. She was different than Peggy, but also quite similar at the same time. Gwen was a bit quieter as she was always thinking. Even though he didn't know her for a long time, Steve could already tell when she was deep in thought by the expression on her face. Though, he would never admit to staring at her. Even though he knew it was true.

Gwen was like Peggy because she was brave. Peggy was most certainly brave as he had met some women who would never want to fight in a war. But Gwen was a different kind of brave. She didn't want to fight to prove a point a woman could fight or because it was for a good cause. She wanted to fight for the sake of others. That's what Steve realized. And it made sense. Gwen didn't want to go out with the rest of the team because she wanted revenge on Loki for pretending to be Agent Maxwell. She wanted to go out there to protect the citizens from the lunatic.

And that was something Steve truly admired about Gwen. Especially after learning what she went through in her life. And Steve was determined to make her happy. He wasn't quite sure what drove this determination, but his mind was set.

He would always be there for Gwen.

* * *

If there was any point in which Gwen had come out of unconsciousness, it was only once. It wasn't for a long time and by the time she finally stirred awake, she wouldn't remember waking up. Her eyes didn't open as she was still half asleep, but there was something that comforted her. Something that told her it was alright.

She couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but it was warm. It was comforting. It was all she needed to fall back into full slumber.

Little did Gwen know, Steve had fallen asleep in his chair next to her, still holding her hand in his.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't post yesterday as I was actually going to. But this website wasn't working properly so I was like screw it I'll wait for tomorrow. And now it's working right. Yay!**

**As a side note, I have planned out exactly what happens in the rest of this story. And because I have the habit of making unstatisfying last chapters, I've started planning a sequel. YES. A SEQUEL. And let me say in my most unhumble opinion it may end up being one of the most epic things I'll ever write. **

**aaroniteXkryptonite: Thank you!**

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**Itsgoose2u: Haha I'm glad you thought so!**

**Fanno . Anderson-Smythe: Thanks so much!**

**DarkRulerKida: Haha, thanks!**

**MysticRyter: I really hope these are good tears as I've never made someone do that before. If so, then I can cross that off my bucket list :D**

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**miller330: Wow, that meant a lot to me! I'm always so worried about characters being OOC. So thank you very much!**

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**amrawo: Thank you!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

Gwen woke up slowly and she wasn't quite sure where she was. She kept her eyes closed with the uncertainty, wondering if she was still with Loki. The last thing she could remember was Steve. She could see everything that was going on, even when Loki's control was making her do things. She saw when she knocked Clint unconscious and she saw when she attacked Steve. She felt terribly guilty for it and wondered what became of him.

Then she realized that he could very well be dead. If she was with Loki, he probably destroyed the building. They were all dead.

Out of fear, Gwen's eyes flew open and she tried to sit up from her laying position, only to find herself incredibly dizzy.

"Gwen!"

Hearing Steve's voice calmed her down slightly as she took in her surroundings. It looked a lot like the helicarrier's medical ward. Maybe she wasn't with Loki after all.

"Gwen, lay down."

She obeyed and calmed her breathing down which she hadn't even realized was near hyperventilation. Her eyes flicked over to where the voice came from and she saw Steve sitting on the side of her bed, pushing her down. After taking a deep breath of relief, she closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again.

"So you're not dead," she joked slightly. Her voice sounded slightly hoarse as though she hadn't spoken in a long time.

Steve smiled big at hearing her voice and Gwen couldn't help but smile back.

"How long have I been out?" she asked.

"A few days. Doctor Banner said that you didn't need to use a lot of energy, but you still needed rest."

Gwen's heart dropped as she heard this. She wondered for a moment if Bruce had told Steve about the accident. She didn't want Steve to know, at least not yet. She knew she'd have to tell him at some point.

"Did you catch Loki?"

Steve shook his head. "We wanted to get you out of there."

"So obviously you didn't listen to me when I said to leave me there."

"Obviously."

Despite slight irritation, Gwen couldn't help but smile again. But she frowned as she remembered something.

"How's Clint?" she asked worriedly.

"He's fine," answered Steve with a shrug. "Just a broken nose. He's gone through worse."

That was very true. Clint sure had gone through much worse. But Gwen still couldn't help but feel bad about attacking her friends.

"Did anyone else get hurt?"

"No. Apparently Natasha found some darts filled with some kind of poison, but that was it."

Gwen flinched at this, remembering seeing through her own eyes as she set up that trap, specifically for Natasha. She knew she'd be on the lower floors and had set things up in hidden areas. But it seemed she didn't do a very good job at it, which Gwen was thankful for.

"And you're not hurt?" asked Gwen.

"No," said Steve. "But enough about the rest of us. How do you feel?"

"Tired. My head hurts a bit, but that's about it."

"Do you want me to get Doctor Banner?" asked Steve, starting to get up. It was then that Gwen realized he was holding her hand. She felt butterflies again and didn't want him to let go.

"No!" she said quickly, blushing immediately. "I mean, I'm sure he already knows I'm awake."

Steve's face turned slightly red as well, but he did not let go of her hand.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm sure."

It was silent for a moment before Gwen finally got the courage to ask Steve something. Something she'd been thinking about.

"Was it you?" she asked. "Was it you who sent Tony with the flowers to give to me?"

Steve's face blushed even more as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously with his free hand.

"Yeah, uh, that was me," he answered a bit quietly. "I asked Tony if he'd fly out in his suit and grab some quick."

"Why?"

"Well, I, uh, I just wanted to because, well, Thor can be a charmer and I just-"

"Wait, were you jealous when Thor kissed my hand?" Gwen's smile got even bigger than what she thought it could. She had never felt this happy before.

"I...suppose...I'm sorry."

"No, don't be sorry," answered Gwen. "I think that was sweet."

Steve looked up and finally made eye contact with her. "Really?"

She gave his hand a squeeze. "Yes, very sweet. Thank you."

"You're, uh, welcome."

The two stared into each other's eyes for an awkward amount of time to anyone around them, but since they were alone, it felt _right_. And, seeing as neither of them could ever have lasting moments like this in their life, they were quickly interrupted.

"Gwedolyn, you're awake!"

They turned to look at Bruce who was walking in.

"How did you know?" asked Gwen.

"I have some monitors in the labs set up so that I could know when you'd be awake," he explained. He glanced over at Steve and gave a short sigh, as though he realized that Steve could've easily gone to get Bruce, but didn't anyway.

"When can I leave?"

Bruce laughed. "Gwendolyn, you were just rescued from Loki's control. And now you've just woken up. You're not leaving for a least another day."

"Another day?" exclaimed Gwen loudly. "I feel great!"

"You said you're tired and your head hurts," argued Steve.

Gwen shot him a glare to which he merely shrugged.

"Thanks for the help," she muttered.

Steve rolled his eyes at her sudden mood change. But he did not remove his hand from hers.

"Besides, this is probably the only privacy you'll get for a while," said Bruce. Gwen looked over at him confused.

"What d'you mean?"

Bruce explained everything he had explained to Steve several days before. However, this time he could go a bit more in depth, seeing as she was there when the accident happened and understood things easier. By the time he was done, Gwen was looking pale and deep in thought.

"And I had to tell Fury," added Bruce.

"You _what?_

"I had to, Gwendolyn. You have to understand. There's no way I could cover this up like Agent Thorn covered up the accident for you. You're lucky I convinced him not to arrest you."

Gwen looked anywhere but at the two men beside her.

"Once you're discharged from here, I'll be working with you an hour a day to work on your powers," explained Bruce. "And trust me, you're going to need all the control you can get. I'll come back later to check on you."

And with that, Bruce left.

"Did he tell you?" asked Gwen to Steve. "About the accident?"

"No," answered Steve. "But you don't need to tell me if you don't want to."

"I really should." Gwen sat herself up a bit higher so she was more comfortable.

And then she told him about the accident. A few times she was tempted to lie and "forget" to tell him a few details, but she realized that would be very wrong to do and decided on telling him the full truth. Steve's expression didn't change throughout the entire explaination, which worried Gwen. She had no idea what he was thinking.

"I didn't mean to hurt anyone," she said at the end. "But everyone in the facility was injured somehow. No one died, thanfully, but they could have."

"Gwen, you're beating yourself up about this," said Steve. "I see no reason too."

"Because I'm a monster!" she nearly shouted. Gwen didn't know what came over her. It was like everything that she was worried about, every little thing she was thinking about came out at once. And that's when the tears started to fall.

Gwen hated crying. She did it as much as the average person, probably, but she still hated it. Especially when it was in front of other people. She thought it made her look weak. She didn't want to look weak.

"I'm a freak!" she exclaimed. "I'm dangerous, I'm-"

"Gwen, stop," ordered Steve gently. He leaned forward and wrapped her in his arms. She buried her face in the crook of his neck as she let it all out. Steve didn't seem quite sure of what he should be doing, so he just held her. And that was all Gwen needed. She didn't realize at first how much she loved having his arms around her. It calmed her down very fast and she couldn't think of anyone she'd rather be with at that moment.

"You're not a monster," he whispered in her ear. "And you're insane to think so."

And that was when she realized all she needed was Steve.

* * *

After one more night in the medical ward, Gwen was finally released. She was more than just happy about this and nearly sprinted out the door once she was dressed in her regular clothes.

Steve did not mention anything about her talk with him and it slightly worried her. What if he had been thinking about it and he realized how dangerous she was? But Gwen pushed it aside. Steve didn't seem like someone who would turn his back on her. At least she thought so.

Unfortunately, Gwen was still being forced to stay on the helicarrier and she felt stupid for even thinking she'd get to leave. She had completely forgotten about how Bruce said he'd be working with her. However, he refused to start until the next day as she was still ever so slightly drained of energy.

Steve walked with her the entire way to her living quarters. Gwen felt perfectly capable of walking by herself, but she honestly didn't mind Steve being with her. She listened to him as he talked about different things that went on before and during World War II. It was a bit creepy how she felt like she was talking to her grandfather that served in the war, but she shook her head. Steve was techincally still young, even though he was probably close to his nineties.

Before they reached her living quarters, however, the two were approached by Natasha. She had her hands behind her back as she spoke.

"Director Fury would like to speak with us all in the conference room," she said.

"Thanks," answered Steve while Gwen nodded. Natasha nodded back and moved past them.

Gwen and Steve made their way to the conference room where they found Tony and Bruce sitting next to each other, using some sort of stick and trying to zap each other with it. Clint was sitting as far away as possible, looking at them in confusion.

"Hey, Clint," said Gwen. She stayed at the door while Steve moved inside.

Clint looked up at her and smiled. "I see you're doing well."

"Yeah, thanks. By the way, I just want to say I'm sorry for trying to blow you up and breaking your nose."

"And I'm sorry that I smashed your head on a table."

"So I guess we're even then?"

"I suppose so."

Gwen smiled and sat down while Steve sat down next to her. Tony finally looked up to see them.

"Hey, look at that, Barbie's up and walking around," he teased.

"It's good to see you too, Tony," she answered with an eye roll.

Natasha entered the room followed by Thor who immediately approached Gwen.

"How are you feeling, Lady Gwendolyn?" he asked.

Gwen kept her hands on her lap and out of sight from Thor just for the sake of Steve. "Much better, thank you."

"I am sorry that my brother has caused so much harm."

"It's not your fault, Thor."

"I am afraid that I am partially to blame."

Thor was unable to say more as Fury came striding in. He stood at the front of the table and put his hands down on the top.

"We have no idea where Loki has gone," he stated.

"Not even a hello?" asked Tony with a fake look of horror and hurt on his face."

Fury ignored him. "Agent Powers, did he mention where he was going?"

"No," answered Gwen. "I didn't need to know."

"It looks to me like we won't find him until he's done something destructive," sighed Fury. "We have absolutely no idea where he is or what he's up to. He must be hiding because we haven't got a hit on him yet. And it's been _days_."

"So you think he's planning something big?" asked Steve.

Gwen saw Bruce shift uncomfortably in his seat as though he had already predicted this.

"Most likely," answered Fury. "I can't see how he could. I highly doubt the Chitauri will follow him this time."

"Unless he's got a new army," suggested Tony. "Or is at least got a new partner in crime or something."

"My brother would never take orders from someone," said Thor grimly. "Nor would he partner with someone."

"Then we're at a loss," said Fury, putting his hands on his hips.

It was silent as everyone thought. What was Loki doing? Why was he taking so long?

"You're all dismissed," ordered Fury at last. Very slowly, people left.

Gwen didn't know what to think. She felt bad that she didn't have anything to tell. Even though she had been taken, she had no information in order to help. And now they were all in the dark. What Fury said was true. They probably wouldn't know what Loki was up to until it was too late.

So, she got up along with Steve, and they continued back to her living quarters.

"You alright?" asked Steve.

"Yeah," answered Gwen, though she wasn't quite sure.

Gwen noticed how close she was to Steve while they walked. She could easily grab his hand. But then she decided against it. What if he didn't like her like that? Wait, did _she_ even like _him_ like that?

She hadn't really come to accept the fact that she had a "crush" on Steve until that moment. Gwen was always getting butterflies by the things he did, but she wasn't so sure he felt the same way towards her. But then again, she had seen him blush around her many times. And he had Tony get her flowers. How could he _not_ like her like that?

But, seeing as Gwen was completely awkward and oblivious when it came to this sort of thing, she wasn't quite sure what to do. She could remember a time in her junior year of high school and a boy had asked to a movie and she hadn't realized it was a date until the boy tried to kiss her and she freaked out. Needless to say they never spoke again. Gwen didn't want that to happen between her and Steve. She enjoyed his presence. She wasn't going to risk anything.

And so she simply said goodbye to him when they reached her living quarters, even though her heart told her to make a move.

And although she didn't know it, Steve was thinking the exact same thing.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Hey, it's Wednesday! And also the day I take my spanish final, but I'm not too worried about that. Anyway...**

**Jayc Black"D'aww" is right! **

**MysticRyter: I'm very glad those were tears of joy. I would've felt bad if I was making you sad.**

**garnet86: Thank you very much! I was worried about the pacing of their relationship because I've read far too many fics in all sorts of fandoms where people fall in love far too fast. **

**Itsgoose2u: Thank you! Oh, and for Loki's plans...you'll find out soon enough (muahahaha)**

**DarkRulerKida: Haha, that's great to hear!**

**miller330: Thank you!**

**yesiamweird: Thanks! I'm glad you like the fluffy-ness!**

**AngelVamp6688: Haha, I have an addiction too. I'm going for the third time on my birthday this Sunday. And thank you! I would probably end up "kissing his face off" myself haha.**

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen**

The following day Gwen made her way to the labs where she knew Bruce would be waiting for her. She wasn't quite sure how they were going to do this whole "practice" thing, but she thought she might as well give it a shot. At least it would keep Fury from putting her under arrest.

She found Bruce in the labs and was surprised that Tony was not there with him. She figured he must've gone back to Stark Tower to check up on everything.

Bruce looked up at her as she stood in the doorway and knocked on the doorframe to alert her prescence.

"Oh, hi Gwendolyn," greeted Bruce. "Just give me second."

He grabbed his glasses after sliding a finger on a monitor and watching it for a second. After becoming pleased with what was on the screen, he came over to her.

"I thought we might want to do this somewhere else. Just in case."

Gwen nodded, understanding, and followed him as he led her to the medical ward and then into a room off of that.

It seemed as though it were like a room in which an individual would go in for a check-up. Except instead of the large chair that could be controlled to go up and down, there was a table that went up to her hips. There was several counterspaces that were already filled up with equipment that Gwen assumed Bruce put there.

"Sit on the table, please," ordered Bruce. Gwen did as he said and jumped up on the table, her hands holding the edge.

"So how are we going to do this?" she asked as Bruce put on his glasses and grabbed some equipment.

"Well, for today, we're going to see how this shield affects your body," he answered, coming over to her with some wires. "I'm going to put these on you so I can monitor your heartbeat, brain activity, all that stuff."

He placed two wires on her chest and two wires on her head, one on each side.

"But Doctor, I don't know how to, well, use my 'power'," Gwen stated.

"You'll have to try," he answered as he returned to the devices the wires led to.

"It sounds silly," continued Gwen. "I mean, me having a 'power.' I sound like I'm part of the X-Men or something."

Bruce laughed. "I suppose it does sound like that. Now, before we begin, I'm just going to ask you a few questions."

Gwen nodded.

"Has anything odd occured around you recently? Maybe like lights flickering, batteries suddenly losing all power...?"

"No," answered Gwen.

"What did your parents do when you were very young?"

Gwen was surprised with this random question, but she assumed he was simply trying to understand how she had this "shield" in her head seeing as she had it all of her life. What her parents' jobs had to do with it, she didn't know.

"My dad was a computer programmer and my mom stayed at home with me," she answered.

"Did you mother have a job before your were born?"

"I don't know...Doctor, what does this have to do with anything?"

"I believe that it is possible that your mother could have encountered some sort of radiation or gamma rays or something while she was pregnant with you."

Gwen nodded uncertainly. She was pretty sure that didn't happen, but then again, she wouldn't know. It was possible.

"So, are you going to help me control energy or something?" she asked.

"Not really," answered Bruce.

"What?"

"The thing is, I think I was wrong. You don't control energy."

Gwen shook her head. "Then how do you explain everything?"

Bruce turned to her. "It's that shield. That's your X-Men mutant power. It takes in things that it tries to keep out."

"So, the tesseract. It's taken that energy in?"

"Like I said, I think that it's making you stronger."

After a deep breath Gwen nodded. "Then what are we doing?"

"First I'm going to have you take energy."

"Uh, what?"

Bruce came over to her holding out a cheap looking phone. "If I'm correct, you'll be able to take the energy out of the phone battery. Sort of like what people say ghosts do. They take energy from cameras, phones and other devices so that they can manifest themselves. I think you might be able to do the same thing, but instead you use it for your own energy."

"So basically I could run on batteries."

"Essencially, yes."

Gwen took the phone in her hand and stared at it. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I'm not quite sure," answered Bruce. "I suppose you could just concentrate. Focus on the battery. If it might help, you can take the back off so you can touch the battery directly."

Unsure of what to do still, Gwen took off the back of the phone and put her other hand on the battery.

Nothing happened.

She had thought she'd feel something or at least see sparks, but nothing happened. The battery just sat there and Gwen thought she looked sort of silly just sitting there with her hand on it.

"It's not working," stated Gwen.

"I wasn't sure if it would," admitted Bruce. "Try focusing on the shield."

"I don't know how."

"Just try. Once you expand it, that might lead you to manipulate the energy around you. You've got to creat an opening for the extra energy to get in."

Gwen closed her eyes this time and concentrated on her head. She couldn't feel the shield, but she tried the best she could. She placed her hand back on the battery and heard a zap.

"Ouch!" she exclaimed as she pulled her hand away instinctively.

Bruce was smiling as he took the phone away. "That was great!"

"How was that great?" asked Gwen, rubbing her hand. "It shocked me."

"There were some sparks," answered Bruce. "I think with more practice you'll eventually get there."

Bruce looked over the monitors, specifically the ones that showed a scan of her brain. Gwen got a look, too, and saw what she assumed was the shield around her brain moving around. There was a very small hole in it, but it was only there for a few seconds before it closed up and Gwen lost all concentration on it.

"I'd say we're done for today," said Bruce. "I don't want you doing too much right away."

He took off all the wires that he had placed on her and returned them to their respective devices.

"Are we doing this again tomorrow?" asked Gwen as she hopped down from the table."

"Yeah. For the time in between, I suggest you try practicing a bit on your own. Nothing big though. Just try to take the energy out of batteries like we did today."

"Sure thing, Doctor."

Bruce smiled. "You're free to leave."

After one last nod, Gwen opened the door and quickly left the medical ward, heading straight for the gym.

* * *

Gwen found Steve in the gym like she had the time before Loki had taken her. He was once again using the punching bags, though he certainly didn't look as violent as the first time she saw him. It was almost like he was doing this for fun.

"Hey, Steve," she said casually.

He turned around quickly with a large grin on his face. "Gwen, hi."

Gwen walked over to a random chair that was sitting there and sat down. Steve started unwrapping the tape on his hands.

"Are you done with Doctor Banner for today?" he asked.

"Yeah, he had me try to take the energy out of a phone battery."

Steve squinted his eyes in confusion, so Gwen thought it would be best to change the subject. Even if she didn't really want to talk about it.

"Were you telling the truth when you said I'm not a monster?" she asked softly, looking at her feet.

"Of course," answered Steve confidently. "Why would you be?"

"I hurt peope, Steve."

"Did you do it on purpose?"

"Well, no, but I wanted to hurt Agent Maxwell."

"Gwen, that wasn't the real Agent Maxwell. That was Loki."

"I didn't know that at the time. I wanted to hurt someone that I thought was innocent!"

Steve looked over at her and she finally looked up.

"Gwen," said Steve, "what he said was out of line."

"He was provoking me. I should've known better."

"Loki's nothing but a bully with super powers. I don't stand for bullies."

Gwen couldn't help but smile at him and found herself staring at him a bit too long, even after he went back to unwrapping the tape. Embarressed, she quickly looked at her feet again.

"I honestly can't imagine bullies giving you a problem," she said.

Steve laughed. "You didn't know me before the procedure."

"If only those bullies could see you now, huh?"

"I bet some of them can."

Gwen paused for a moment as she realized that everyone Steve once knew was either dead or incredibly old. She couldn't imagine what that felt like, so she didn't press the subject.

Instead, she attempted to explain what she meant by taking energy out of a phone battery.

* * *

Tony sighed as he ran a hand over his face. Bruce was working with Gwen and Tony wasn't into the idea of being the labs alone just in case Mr. Grumpy, aka Fury, decided to show up. So the genius decided to stay at Stark Tower in order to try and locate Loki and the tesseract.

Unfortunately, he was alone here too as Pepper had gone to a meeting with a Senator.

"Sir," came JARVIS's voice, "there are a group of men in the lobby that are demanding your presence."

"Show me the security feed."

Tony looked up at a monitor to see about a dozen men wearing police uniforms standing in his lobby. He certainly didn't like how they had their guns drawn.

"Alright," said Tony. "I'll go down."

Tony entered the elevator and let JARVIS take him down. He was slightly, _just slightly_, worried. He knew why they were there and had been waiting for it to happen. He just hoped the plan he constructed would work.

The elevator doors slid open and the policemen raised their weapons at him. Tony put his hands in the air almost on instinct as he walked to a specific spot.

"Hey, there's no need to point those at me," he said.

"Tony Stark," said the policeman in the front. "You under arrest for the murders of Charles Johnson, Alan Shilling and James Thorn."

"Yeah," answered Tony. "That's gonna be a problem."

"We don't want to have to hurt you, Mr. Stark," said the policeman.

"It's not really me that's the problem necessarily. Y'see, I didn't kill those guys. I mean, why would I? There's no motive."

"Mr. Stark-"

"Oh, don't worry. I've watched all those crime shows and whatnot. I just don't see how you've come to the conclusion I'm murdering innocent people."

"You have the right to remain silent-"

"Yeah, I don't think so. JARVIS! Activate Plan 'They're-Not-Gonna-Take-Me-Dead-Or-Alive.'"

Just as the policemen started to comprehend what he just said, smoke started shooting out of the walls where they stood. The men fell down on the ground for air while Tony allowed the Iron Man suit to wrap around him where he stood.

Once this was all done, Tony shot through the front doors, destroying them in the process.

Although Tony didn't want it to come to this, he knew he couldn't go back to Stark Tower. The police would probably get a warrant and shut the place down or at least search it.

"Would you like me to call Miss Potts for you, sir?" asked JARVIS as Tony flew off for the helicarrier.

"Yeah, might be a good idea."

Pepper's face came up in front of him as her phone rang. She picked up after two rings.

"Tony?" she asked.

"Hey there," he answered casually.

"Tony, what's going on? There are so many sirens!"

"Yeah, uh, y'see, I just resisted arrest and blew smoke into the faces of twelve cops."

"Tony you what?"

"Trust me, I'm thinking the same thing. I bet they'll let you back in the tower, but I don't think I'll be able to get back in."

"You have some explaining to do when this is over."

Tony smiled. "That I do, Pepper. That I do."


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Hello everyone! It is my last Thursday as a sophomore (YEEEEES). **

**Anyway, just as a fun fact, I got to watch Thor again last night as my mom and I showed it to my dad who hadn't seen it yet. My mom and I both share a love for Loki, so we kept talking about him the whole time.**

**Jayc Black: Thank you! I love that too, it just seemed so right :)**

**LittleMissMia123: Haha I love how you say that it is cool how Tony's running from the cops MADE ME LAUGH. :D**

**garnet86: Thank you so much for your comment about making Tony in character. He's the one I worry about the most. Thanks!**

**Maroon5Maniac: Thank you! Also, I know present you with virtual cookies for giving me my 100th review. PARTAY PARTAY**

**Itsgoose2u: I'm glad you think Gwen's power is cool (I do too) but unfortunately, Gwen such a party pooper and hopefully Steve can stop that. **

**miller330: Thank you very much!**

**Kittyjs123: Do not feel ashamed my friend! At least you still found it! First of all, thanks for a long review. I love those the most (seriously). As for the whole black hair thing with Agent Maxwell and Loki, it was that detail that gave me the idea to do that, as well as reading over the first chapter. When I started writing, I had no idea he was Loki. I was just as shocked as everyone else when I figured it out haha :) So thank you!**

**HauntedMonster: Thank you! (Lovely is also one of my favorite words)**

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

It wasn't long before Gwen and Steve were interupted in the gym by Agent Hill striding in, her dark hair in its trademark bun.

"Fury would like you both in the conference room right now," she said.

"Why?" asked Steve. "Did we get something on Loki?"

"No," she answered, supressing a smile. "Stark's become a fugitive."

And with that, she left the gym.

Gwen turned to Steve, her eyebrows raised. Steve shrugged and went to change out of his sweatpants. Gwen waited, wondering what Tony did. She assumed it had to do with the plane crash, but she never actually thought they'd try to arrest him. Who in their right mind would try to arrest Tony Stark?

Once Steve was changed, the two walked quickly through the helicarrier to find the conference room where none other than Tony Stark was sitting, still in his Iron Man suit. He was drinking a juice box with the bendy straw that came with it.

"Don't judge me," he said as Gwen raised her eyebrows at him and sat down next to Clint. Natasha, Bruce and Thor were already in the room.

"Stark," said Fury who was standing in the front. "What made you think that shooting gas at a dozen police officers and shooting through the windows was a good idea?"

"I actually had a dream about it," he said, pointing at his head. "_That's_ what made me think it was a good idea."

Fury ran a hand over his shaved head. "You are a _wanted man_ now. Do you get that?"

"Oh, I get that. What made you think that I didn't know that?"

"Maybe it was your carefree attitude?"

"Maybe that's something you need to look into getting, Fury."

"The world is threatened, we don't have the time for this nonsense."

"How is it threatened if we can't find the threat?"

"We are doing the best we can."

"You're not doing enough!"

"Stop it!" exclaimed Gwen suddenly.

Everyone looked at her, ignoring the now flickering lights.

"Your face..." trailed off Natasha.

Gwen slipped out her phone and looked at the black screen. Her reflection scared her. There were lines in her face, not like wrinkles, but like cracks. The skin around her eyes was dark again.

It was just like before the accident.

What was strange though, was that Gwen hadn't even noticed the anger that was building. Watching Fury and Tony fight seemed to irritate her far more than she thought.

"Sorry," she mummbled, sinking down into her seat as if she'd become invisible this way. She felt something grasp her hand and looked to see Steve's hand around hers under the table. She looked over at him, but he was looking over at Tony and Fury, his cheeks slighly pink. Gwen smiled and could already feel herself calming down.

"Stark," continued Fury, "there is a warrant for your arrest."

"I know," answered Tony. "But once this whole Loki thing is over _again, _then I'm sure I can get the police to drop the charges."

"He planned this," added Gwen.

Everyone turned to her. Her face was back to normal now, though she was deep in thought, remembering something Loki had said to her when she first woke up in the warehouse.

"What?" asked Clint.

"Loki had said something about getting Tony in trouble for the plane crash," explained Gwen.

"There, y'see Fury?" asked Tony, pointing his juice box in Gwen's direction. "Loki admitted to it."

"So you think that Loki was trying to get Stark arrested?" asked Natasha.

"I think so," answered Gwen. "But wouldn't he expect Tony to avoid it?"

"True," agreed Fury. "There must be something more to it then."

"Like what?" asked Bruce. "D'you think he's planning something that has to do with Stark?"

"Maybe he just wanted him out of the way," suggested Clint.

"He would've killed him then," argued Steve.

"My brother would not have killed the Man of Iron," said Thor.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Here we go with the whole 'my-insane-homicidal-brother-comes-in-peace' thing again."

"Loki is not insane, he is just hurting."

"Seriously, they should call you 'Overly Accepting Thor.'"

"Anyway," interrupted Fury, "we'll have to keep a close eye on Stark Tower. I can't imagine Loki wanting to use it again for whatever he wishes to do."

"But then again, this is Loki," argued Bruce. "This is the god of mischief."

"What, so we should go looking in joke shops or something?" asked Tony. "It's not like we're dealing with the god version of the Weasley Twins. This guy's just nuts."

"You do not understand, Man of Iron," said Thor.

"And what is it I don't understand, then?"

Thor was silent for a moment. "I believe he only wants to rule Midgard because he wants to be equal to me."

"Enslaving the human race is always a great way to go."

"No, that is not what he wishes. I am to rule Asgard while he is to remain in my shadow. This is my fault."

"Hey, you're not the one making Loki's desicions," argued Steve. "That's all on him."

"But I made him this way."

"That's sort of true," said Bruce. "Villains aren't born. They're made."

Gwen couldn't believe how sad and serious the conversation turned. She had expected to leave the conference room, laughing at whatever Tony was up to. But now she couldn't help but feel bad for Thor. He obviously felt guilty. But then Gwen thought of an idea.

"What was Loki like?" she asked suddenly, leaning forward over the table. "Before he went crazy?"

Thor smiled in remembrance. "He was always a trickster. I can remember him changing my helmet into a real bird as he always made fun of the feathers on it."

"But then what happened?"

"Father explained to me that Loki is not Asgardian. He is a Frost Giant."

"Frost Giant?" asked Tony. "I admit, he seems pretty cold, but shouldn't he be shooting ice out of his hands or something then?"

"He grew up in Asgard. My father adopted him into our family. When he found out, something snapped."

Gwen thought for a moment. She tried putting the pieces of what Thor said together. Loki was made a villain because the truth was kept from him. And Thor had mentioned Loki lived in his shadow. So that obviously meant people never really saw Loki. They only saw Thor. That probably included their parents.

Gwen, of course, now felt sympathy for Loki, but she still remembered that he was the one who kidnapped her and took control of her mind. But she knew she wanted to face him again. Loki was someone who used words as his ultimate weapon. Maybe Gwen could turn that power against him.

* * *

After the meeting came to a conclusion, Gwen and Steve went back to her living quarters. They did not walk hand in hand, but Gwen couldn't help but think about holding it again. She seriously needed to stop this.

"Can I ask you a question?" asked Steve as they stopped at her door.

"You already did," Gwen pointed out.

Steve rolled his eyes, but smirked slightly. "I was just curious...why did you join SHIELD?"

"Oh," answered Gwen. "Well, Tony convinced me to."

"That's weird, considering I get the feel that Tony isn't SHIELD's biggest fan."

Gwen licked her lips as she debated how to explain why she joined the agency.

"I'm not sure if you know or not, but Tony had been taken hostage in ... and that's where he built the Mark I," she explained. "He escaped and was rescued. He eventually built new versions of the Iron Man suit and became a superhero when he defeated a guy named Obediah who went sort of power crazy. I was working for Tony at this time, programming computers and whatnot at the Stark Industries building. Tony was eventually approached by SHIELD. Tony didn't want to join, of course. But then I was approached after he ended up bragging about how well I was with computers. Tony got this idea stuck in his head that I should join because he thought I'd be able to use their technology to find the doctors who experimented on me. Unfortunately, once you join SHIELD, you can't turn back. And so here I am."

Steve nodded.

Suddenly, Gwen noticed how close they were standing. Their faces were merely inches away from each other. She could've sworn that Steve had glanced down at her lips for a second and then back up to her eyes, but she wasn't sure. Then, as though coming back to reality, Steve back up and cleared his throat.

"Well," he said, "I guess I should be going."

"Steve, wait!"

He stopped just as Gwen put her arms around his middle and pulled him close to her. At first, it seemed Steve wasn't quite sure how to respond, but then he placed his arms around her and returned the gesture. Gwen let her head rest upon his chest and listened to his strong heartbeat.

"Thank you," she said.

"For what?" he asked.

"For being there for me. Even though we haven't known each other that long."

Gwen could nearly hear Steve's smile and she just barely felt a gentle kiss from him being placed on the top of her head as though he wasn't sure if he should be doing that.

"No problem," he answered.

Gwen reluctantly pulled away, a smile stretching across her face. She backed up and entered her living quarters, leaving a beaming Steve outside in the hall.

* * *

Within the large throne room in the palace of Asgard, Odin sat upon his throne in silence. There were guards around, of course, but he still felt very lonely. Frigga was not beside him like she normally was. Instead she was with some healers as they tended to the wounded of Asgard that had come back from a recent battle.

But the worst part was not having his sons beside him. Despite Thor's arrogance when the god was younger, Odin had still loved him. Despite Loki's mischief throughout the centuries, Odin had still loved him. But now neither of them were in Asgard. And it pained the All-Father to know he was partially to blame for it.

Of course it had taken a while after Thor's departure when the realm came to know of the tesseract's and Loki's disapperances for Odin to realize what he had done. Actually, it was a conversation with Frigga that brought him to the light.

_"He is your son!" exclaimed Frigga as Odin thought of ways that Loki would be punished upon his return. _

_"He has threatened Jotunheim and now for the second time, Midgard. He must be punished."_

_"Have you not realized why he is doing all of this?"_

_Odin paused as he looked at his wife in confusion. "Loki seeks power. That is why he wants Midgard for his own."_

_"No, my King," answered Frigga. "He wants equality."_

_"What?"_

_"He wants you to love him as much as Thor. That's what he's always wanted. Your approval, your acceptance. I have done my best to love them both equally. You must do the same."_

After thinking for long time afterwards, Odin realized that Frigga was right. That was why Loki let go on the bridge. That was why he wanted to rule a realm.

He wanted to show his worth.

And Odin felt terribly guilty.

He was taken out of his thoughts, however, when a woman with long dark hair approached him. She got down on one knee and placed her right arm across her chest, making a fist over her heart.

"My Lord," she said.

"Yes, Lady Sif?"

"I have spoken with the prophetess Volla."

Odin supressed an eye roll. "And what is it she predicted?"

"She claims that all nine realms are in danger."

"Are they not always?"

"She said that someone seeks the Infinity Gauntlet."

This shocked Odin. He could clearly remember realizing the power of the Gauntlet and ordering for it to be separated from the gems and have them all placed randomly within Midgard so that no one could ever harness that power.

"And did she tell you who this person is?" asked Odin.

Sif shook her head. "No. She does not think him human. Or god. Do you think it is a Frost Giant?"

"No. The Frost Giants owe Thor a debt from when he destroyed the Bifrost to save Jotunheim. They would not attack."

"The elves? The dwarves?"

"No, they mean us no harm."

"Then who?"

Odin looked down and shook his head. "I fear we will not know until it is too late."


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**IT'S FRIDAY FRIDAY GOTTA GET DOWN-**

**SHUT UP REBECCA!**

**Sorry guys, my inner Rebecca Black just came out there. Anyway, let me apologize in advance if I don't post at all this weekend. There's a 90% chance I will tomorrow, but no chance I will on Sunday as it is my sixteenth birthday (not actually that excited about it) and my parents are taking me to the Avengers for the third time (my dad's first) and then out to dinner and then I open my presents (one of which is in an Avengers gift bag. I love my mom.) **

**garnet86: Thank you very much! I'm glad you like the development between Gwen and Steve. **

**LittleMissMia123: Haha, I'm glad you liked the humor. I couldn't get the image of RDJ with a juice box and in the Iron Man suit out of my head when it got there.**

**MysticRyter: You are welcome, dear reader! I'm glad I can prevent your death with fast updating.**

**yesiamweird: Yay, it was perfect! That was great to read.**

**Itsgoose2u: Haha, I always feel bad for Loki. So many feels. **

**miller330: Eheheh I love teasing with the ends of chapters.**

**Justasmalltowngirl2713: I love Steve too. Haha, I don't know how I update everyday either. Tis a mystery.**

**Kittyjs123: I'm glad that made your day! And I have Loki feels too. Basically, everything is Loki and everything hurts for me. Cliffhangers to me are like bows and arrows to Clint.**

**AngelVamp6688: Tony is like the best to write for haha. Especially because it's basically like writing for RDJ as they are like the same person personality wise.**

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen**

The day after Tony resisted arrest, Gwen once again went to the labs to find Bruce for another lesson.

"Where's Tony?" she asked as she entered through the door and found only one genius inside.

Bruce rolled his eyes. "Sleeping."

Gwen sighed and nodded, not expecting anything else from Tony. She followed Bruce to the medical ward again and they both went into the same room as the previous day.

Bruce right away went to hooking up the wires to Gwen again.

"I analyzed the data I collected yesterday," said Bruce. "It seems that your heart actually takes in this energy as well."

"Does it have a shield around it too?" asked Gwen.

"No, but it seems that it turns the energy into blood cells or something similar to that. In all honesty, Gwen, I have no sure idea about any of this."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be any more help."

Bruce laughed. "Gwendolyn, you're the only person who would apologize for being different."

Gwen cracked a smile as well as the doctor turned back to his monitors and made sure they were set up.

"So are you going to have me take the energy out of a battery again?" asked Gwen.

"Nope," answered Bruce. "You're going to try something different."

He backed up and went to the light switch.

"Oh," said Gwen, slowly realizing what he meant.

He wanted her to take energy out of the electricity that powered the lights.

"I don't know," protested Gwen. "That seems like a lot of concentration."

"I just want to see how you handle this," argued Bruce. "I won't let anything bad happen to you."

Reluctantly, Gwen approached the peach colored panel on the wall which held the light switch for the room. Just as she had the phone battery, she reached out and touched it with her hand and concetrated on opening the shield. She closed her eyes as she felt a tingling sensation go through her fingers and enter her body. Goosebumps rose on every inch of her skin and then there was a shock.

The shock was enough to make Gwen pull away and open her eyes. Except she found that the room was pitch black.

"Um, Gwen," said Bruce. "I think you just made the power go out."

Nodding, Gwen hastily placed her hand back on the panel in hopes that she could put the energy back inside. She wasn't sure if it would work, but it was worth a shot. Gwen felt the same tingling sensation again, except in the opposite direction. Around her, the lights flickered and the became lit up once more.

Gwen stepped back, a large smile on her face. "I just did that. I really just did that."

Bruce was smiling as well as he took down several notes, glancing at his monitors occasionally.

Not once in Gwen's life did she think she could actually do something like that. She had actually just caused a power outage by simply placing her hand on a light switch and sucking the energy out of it. No wonder why Loki had wanted her.

"That was great, Gwendolyn," commented Bruce. "I honestly wasn't expecting that."

"I wasn't either," answered Gwen, still smiling and staring at the panel. She suddenly frowned. "Are there going to be any...side effects?"

"What d'you mean?"

"Like, am I going to be exhausted from this?"

Bruce shook his head. "I don't think so. You took in extra energy and then put it back. You should be fine."

Gwen nodded as she allowed Bruce to take off the wires. It had been such a thrilling experience and it made Gwen wonder what else she could do.

Then a though thought occured to her that she wished hadn't.

_She could hurt people._

Gwen hated how she always thought of that sort of thing. She didn't mean to, but it just happened. It wasn't like Gwen thought about hurting people on purpose. But she couldn't shake the idea in her head that she could do serious damage if she lost control. She wasn't going to let an accident happen again.

"Let's do it again," said Gwen, turning back to Bruce.

"What?" he asked, looking confused.

"I want to do it again."

"Why?"

Gwen shook her head. "I want more practice. I know I can do it."

And so after a moment of thought, Bruce placed the wires back on Gwen as she reached for the panel and attempted to draw the energy out again.

* * *

Like Bruce had predicted, Gwen felt no less energy as she made her way to the gym. She sort bounced with each step, happier than she had been before she arrived in New York. Maybe the change hadn't been such a bad thing after all.

Unfortunately, Steve was not in the gym. It was completely empty. Slightly confused, Gwen left the room and wandered around the helicarrier, unsure of where the soldier was. Her feet seemed to take her to the labs where she found Tony and Steve talking.

"...don't worry about it, old man," said Tony, patting Steve on the shoulder as she walked into the room.

"Don't worry about what?" she asked, leaning against the doorframe, her arms crossed over her chest.

Steve whipped around to look at her, looking slightly worried at the idea of her overhearing anything.

"Uh, we were just-"

"We were discussing arrangements for Rogers to live in Stark Tower once this whole thing is over," finished Tony. He had a smile on his face that Gwen knew all too well.

He was lying.

But Gwen didn't press the issue and looked back at Steve who was approaching her.

"Let's go for a walk," he said, shooting a look at Tony which Gwen couldn't see.

She followed Steve as he led her out of the labs. She was very tempted to ask him more about what they were talking about, but she held her tongue. It wasn't her place to start asking questions about private conversations.

"So how was your lesson with Doctor Banner?" asked Steve as they slowly walked through the nearly empty halls of the helicarrier.

"I made the power go out in the room," she answered excitedly.

"Really?" asked Steve with a smile. "That's impressive."

"Thanks."

She looked up at Steve and noticed he looked rather tired. Actually, he looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep at all.

"Steve?" she asked, stopping in the hall and turning him around.

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

Gwen looked up at him with concern etched into her features. Steve waited for a moment as if contemplating what he should say.

"I just didn't sleep well last night," he answered shortly with a shrug.

"Steve, you look like you didn't sleep at all."

Without realizing it, Gwen took hold of his hands in hers. Steve glanced down and then back up at her, blushing slightly, but not as much as he used to.

"I just - well, I had a nightmare."

It seemed weird to Gwen how childish he looked at that moment. He seemed almost like a young boy who had just seen the monster in his closet.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked softly, not wanting to push it.

Steve shook his head. "It was just about some things during the war. Nothing much."

Gwen nodded, but she wanted to hear more. Steve had told her some events that happened during his time before and during the war, but he had never gone into much detail about some of the people he met and some of the things he did. Gwen assumed that he was still slightly hurting or maybe still in denial about being frozen for so long.

So, Gwen began to walk past him, still holding one of his hands, and pulled him along. She tightened her grip of his hand as they walked to her living quarters in a comfortable silence. Just as Gwen was about to close her door, Steve looked like he wanted to ask her something, but then thought better of it.

"See you tomorrow," he simply said as he gave her smile.

"See you," answered Gwen as she closed the door and he turned to walk away.

* * *

Tony stood in disbelief as he watched Gwen and Steve leave the labs. There was no way he just had that conversation. He never thought he would.

Steve had asked Tony if it was okay to ask Gwen on a date.

Of course Tony laughed. Why wouldn't he? Tony wasn't related to Gwen, so why ask him? And, of course, no one asked persmission to ask someone on a date these days. He wasn't sure why Steve had gone to him, but Tony knew that the two had feelings for each other. He wasn't about to prevent it.

So he said go ahead.

Tony was over his little jealously of attention at this point and saw no reason why the two shouldn't be dating. He honestly thought they were perfect for each other. He had actually been wondering if he could trick them into going out with each other. Pepper probably would've been furious if she found that out, but she would've secretly approved.

And so as he watched the two leave, he wondered whether or not Steve would have the courage to ask. And Tony laughed again. Of course he didn't.

So Tony went back to his work while devising a plan that could finally bring the two together.

* * *

It had been hard to accept the fact he had lost Gwen, but Loki knew he had to start preparing again. At first he didn't know where to start. Everything he had done while on Midgard was planning on how to seize control of her. But she was gone and now he was back to nothing. The tesseract couldn't help him. Not in the way he wanted it to. But then an idea had struck.

And so now Loki, hiding in the shadows of an empty New York alley, held all of the bombs that Gwen had planted throughout the warehouse. He wasn't exactly hiding of course. Loki was using his magic to make himself invisible. Invisiblity was one of his favorite things to do in Asgard as a child when he wanted to be left alone. He stared up at Stark Tower, which still only had an "A" on it as the rest of the letters were never replaced. Loki was ready this time. He wouldn't fail. He _couldn't_. He had failed the one he worked for once. Failing again would mean death. Besides, he had no other place to go. Asgard certainly wouldn't want Loki back. It was either take over Midgard or die. And Loki wan't really up for dying.

But this plan was flawless. He knew what he had to do, not just to get the tessaract where it should be, but to do something more. Something really for his own revenge.

He was going to kill Gwendolyn Powers.

* * *

If there was one thing that Heimdall never felt, it was confusion. He always knew what was going on. But as he stood at the broken end of the bridge that once led to the Bifrost, the only thing Heimdall felt was confusion.

"Great Heimdall?" came a female voice from behind him. He needn't turn around to know who she was. He knew she had been coming.

"You are alone, Lady Sif," he answered in his deep voice.

"Yes, well, Fandral is off with another maiden, Hogun is training and Volstagg is having yet another feast."

"You wish to know how Thor is fairing."

There was silence for a moment as Sif considered his statement.

"Yes," she answered.

"He still searches for his brother," said Heimdall. "As do I."

"What?" asked Sif with shock. "You are _searching_ for Loki?"

"Yes. I cannot see him."

"Loki's always been one for mischief, but how can you not see him?"

Heimdall remained silent as Sif thought. The gatekeeper wondered if Loki had mastered some form of invisibility. That would not be a surprise. Loki was always good at magic. There had also been that time while Loki was king and had visited Jotunheim and Heimdall could not see nor hear anything that was happening. That had been quite bothersome.

"Do they need our help?" asked Sif. "The Midgardians?"

Heimdall knew that they could actually use help, but he knew that everything would work out in the end. He had been keeping a close eye on the woman named Gwendolyn. Even Heimdall knew that she played an important role in the coming events. But he could not help but have a feeling that things would get far worse than what they already were.

"No," he answered at last. "Not yet."


	19. Chapter Nineteen

**Okay, so I know this chapter is short. I apologize. Therefore, I will be posting the next chapter later today. This story, however, is nearing the end, but I have big plans for the sequel. _Big plans._**

**garnet86: I know, it's killing me how shy Steve can be.**

**Nemo-chan: Aww, that makes me feel really good! I'm glad Gwen is a lovable OC.**

**MysticRyter: Thank you! And yeah, I thought that way too haha. **

**AngelVamp6688: Thank you! Yeah, turning sixteen certainly isn't my favorite thing right now haha. It's my first birthday without my grandma who I was really close to so it's sort of sad, but seeing the Avengers again is making me happy. (My mom also just gave me an Avengers t-shirt which GLOWS IN THE FREAKING DARK.)**

**Kittyjs123: I love Steve's gentlemanness. It's so fun to write :) **

**miller330: Thank you so much! Tony's always got a trick up his sleeve...**

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen**

There were no drills in Stark Tower. When an alarm went off, everyone inside simply walked out and far away from the tower. Even though there wasn't a massive amount of people there, it was the only routine they knew. Even if there would've been a tornado drill, though there wasn't many of those, the people inside would've just walked out and filled up the streets.

So obviously when Pepper was innocently looking over some building plans for what Tony had said Potts Tower would be and an alarm went off, she sighed and headed for the elevator.

"Miss Potts, I suggest you head to a very safe distance," said JARVIS.

"What?" asked Pepper, becoming worried. "Why?"

"I have detected several bombs within the tower."

Pepper froze outside the elevator. "B-bombs?"

How was that even possible? Someone would've noticed a person walking around and planting bombs inside the tower.

"Yes, Miss Potts. It might be a good idea if you were to contact Mr. Stark."

Pepper nodded. "Yeah. Very good idea."

Before the elevator even opened, Pepper had her phone out and was dialing Tony.

"Hello?" came Tony's voice.

"Tony, it's me," answered Pepper as she stepped inside the elevator.

"What's wrong?"

"JARVIS found bombs in the tower."

"_What_?" asked Tony who sounded panicked.

"There are bombs in the tower!" repeated Pepper.

"Pepper, you listen to me, you get as far away from there as possible right now."

"Already working on it." Pepper stepped out of the elevator and made her way to the parking garage where her car sat. "The building is being evacuated right now."

"Okay," said Tony. "I'll tell the others. We'll take care of it."

He hung up the phone and Pepper dropped hers into her purse and threw it on the passanger side of the car while she got into the passanger seat. As she drove out of the parking garage and threw the streets of New York, a man sat up in the penthouse, a smirk on his face.

Loki wasn't going to fail this time.

* * *

It was after yet another lesson with Bruce that Gwen found herself approached by a frantic looking Steve.

"Come with me," he ordered and said nothing else but walked in the direction of the conference room.

Gwen could feel her heart racing already. The past few days hadn't been so bad, but something was really wrong. Steve normally didn't look this concerned.

She followed Steve inside the conference room where Bruce was sitting, reading a piece of paper and Tony was pacing back and forth, looking deep in thought. Gwen sat down across from Bruce and saw that Steve wasn't sitting. He looked far too anxious to do anything but stand. It wasn't long before they were joined by Thor, Natasha, Clint and Fury.

"Alright, explain this to me again, Stark," said Fury, walking to the front of the table.

"Pepper called me and said that JARVIS detected bombs inside Stark Tower," said Tony with no usual hint of amusement that he normally had.

Gwen's chest tightened as she comprehended this. She wondered who would put bombs in the tower and get away with it. Then a specific name popped into her head.

"Is everyone out of the tower?" asked Clint.

"Pepper said there was an evacuation," answered Tony.

"Who did it?" asked Natasha.

"We don't know."

Fury sighed. "You're all to suit up and go there. I don't have a good feeling about this."

"What are you saying?" asked Steve. "Do you think Loki is behind this?"

Gwen gasped as she made a connection. "Did any of you take the bombs out of the warehouse?"

"No," answered Fury. "We didn't think about that."

"So you are implying that my brother has taken these explosives and has placed them inside the tower?" asked Thor.

Gwen nodded. "I wouldn't put it past him."

"But why?" asked Bruce. "There's no one there."

"He's expecting us, isn't he?" said Steve.

"Well, someone's gotta do something," responded Tony. "I'm not going to sit here while there are bombs in my tower!"

"Just calm down, Stark," said Fury.

"How can I calm down? Loki is in my tower with _bombs_! Do you know what a _bomb_ is, Fury?"

"I'm just saying that getting all excited isn't going to help us. Stark, can you access your security feeds?"

"Yeah, I'll do that."

Tony quickly went out the door and most likely towards the labs.

"Alright, rest of you, I want you to suit up," ordered Fury.

"Wait," said Bruce, "we don't even know if it is Loki."

"What, do you think it's some terrorist or something?" asked Clint.

"No, I'm just saying that it might not be Loki."

"Who else then?"

"I don't know."

"There's only one way to find out," said Gwen. "We go there."

"_We?_" asked Steve, looking down at Gwen.

"God, not again," she muttered under her breath.

"You can't go," said Steve.

"Yes I can."

"No. Loki wants you. He'll take you with him if he gets the chance."

"He can't if it isn't Loki," argued Bruce.

"But if it is, I don't want to take that chance!"

"Powers has been working with Doctor Banner," said Fury. "She must have some sort of control of her powers by now."

"Yeah, I do," agreed Gwen, sitting up straighter. "I won't have just a gun this time."

Steve looked around at everyone. It seemed he was the only one who wished for her to stay back. After getting no support from his teammates, Steve sighed.

"Fine," he answered. "But we're not getting separated this time."

Gwen smiled. "Don't worry, Captain. I've got a plan."

"It better be a good one."

* * *

It angered Tony that Loki was in his building again. And especially that the god had put _bomb__s_ in it. No one put bombs inside Stark Tower except for Tony. And he didn't even wish to do that.

But the worst part was that Tony couldn't find anything in the security feed that actually showed someone placing the bombs. He couldn't even find where they were. It was like they were invisible.

Wouldn't that figure.

It had to be Loki. Only a god could make things invisible. Unless there was some sort of superhuman that SHIELD didn't know about. That would be bad, especially if they were on the other team.

Tony knew that the others would be suiting up about now, but he tried watching all the videos closely. He had to figure out where Loki was.

But he couldn't.

Because Loki was invisible.

Tony sighed loudly as he exited the labs and headed to where he suit was stored. There was no way he was going to let Loki cause damage to the tower again. Why did it always have to be _his_ tower? Why couldn't Loki pick on someone else for once?

So Tony allowed the suit to be wrapped around him.

"JARVIS?" he asked. "How's it going at the tower?"

But there was no answer.

"JARVIS?"

There was still no answer. JARVIS was down.

Wouldn't that figure.


	20. Chapter Twenty

**This chapter is also on the short side, so here you go. Like I said before, I won't be posting tomorrow because of my birthday. So see you all on Monday!**

**Kittyjs123: Haha I found that funny. And thank you!**

**garnet86: Thank you! I'll try my best!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty**

Loki found it humorous how the Avengers were probably suiting up to come and fight him. He knew they would. Despite any protests someone could give, that leader guy would make them go. And they would obey. And he had everything planned out.

Of course, as he set off the first bomb, he wondered how they would react to see the smoke coming from Stark Tower. It wasn't that Loki sought to completely destroy the building. No, he simply wanted them to come and this was one of the best ways he could think of. And it couldn't hurt him if he blew up a couple of them, especially the first one. He felt lucky that the Avengers had wanted to get Gwen out of that warehouse so fast that they had left the bombs inside. They were probably making their hands into fists and clenching their teeth as they realized their mistake. But hopefully they would come to fix it.

Loki had watched the building being evacuated and knew that it was all up to the Avengers. It would be just them against him. And, if his plan went as well as it did in his head, Gwen would be with them. He didn't wish to take control of her like the last time. He had done that already and it obviously hadn't worked. He wasn't actually sure yet how he was going to get her alone, but maybe the fates would be in his favor today. Maybe, just maybe, she'd be alone at one point and that would be when he'd strike. For he knew that Gwen had a good heart. And if Thor had said anything about Loki, she'd feel sympathy. There was no doubt in his mind she'd want to try to reason with him. Loki couldn't help but scoff at the idea. There was no reason. There was no going back. Loki had realized this a long time ago. Even if Loki wanted to, he couldn't stop now. He had nothing left but his life and he desperately held on to it.

He'd finally make his father proud.

He'd finally be equal to Thor.

He'd finally be more than just Loki Laufeyson.

He'd finally be Loki, ruler of Midgard.

* * *

Although she wouldn't admit it, Gwen was scared. It wasn't that she was scared for her life. No, she wasn't afraid of Death. Death had brought her so much misery, but She wasn't going to take Gwen. Not now. Gwen had a job to do first.

So, after convincing Steve that she should go along to Stark Tower, Fury dimissed them all to go suit up. Gwen went with Clint and Natasha to change into their SHIELD uniforms and get their weapons while Steve went to get in his Captain America uniform. Thor was already wearing his armor and Gwen assumed that it wasn't long before Tony got in the Iron Man suit if he hadn't already.

They all made their way to the aircraft hanger to board the same aircraft they had been constantly using. Natasha and Clint right away got into the pilot and co-pilot seats while Gwen looked over Bruce's shoulder at the monitors.

"Look," ordered Bruce. "He's set off one of the bombs."

Gwen looked closer along with Natasha and Clint as they watched new footage of smoke coming from the tower.

"There's no one in there, right?" asked Gwen.

"Tony said Pepper told them they were evacuated, remember?" answered Bruce. "If this is Loki, then he's just doing this for fun."

"He could be trying to destroy the building," suggested Clint.

"No, he would have set them all off," answered Thor, walking into the aircraft. "My brother enjoys his tricks."

"D'you think he has the tesseract with him?" asked Natasha.

"I think so," answered Bruce. "I can't be sure."

"Then where else would it be?" asked Clint.

"I don't know."

"We should leave," said Steve as he climbed onboard, his shield on his arm. He stood next to Gwen as he observed the monitors as well.

"Right," answered Clint as he and Natasha returned to their seats.

"Where's Stark?"

"We don't know," answered Bruce.

Steve sighed. "He can get there on his own."

Gwen held onto a seat as the aircraft lifted off the ground and exited the helicarrier.

"Are you sure you can handle this?" Steve asked, turning to Gwen.

"I sense power within her," said Thor. "It seems much more under control compared to when I first arrived."

Gwen smiled at Thor. "See? Even a god thinks I'll be okay."

"He didn't say that," muttered Steve. "Just stay close to me, okay? I don't want you getting hurt."

"Don't worry, Steve. I'll be fine."

Steve looked at her for an extra moment as if he was debating something, but then looked away and back at the monitors. Gwen licked her lips nervously, wondering what he was thinking about.

"Where do you want us to land?" asked Clint.

"Take us to the ground floor," answered Steve.

"But what if Loki's at the top?" asked Gwen.

"Then we shouldn't go up there. He could shoot us down."

"But what if he sets off more bombs?"

"Just trust me."

Gwen nodded, knowing that she coiuld trust Steve. Even though she thought differently.

She could feel the aircraft start its descent and figured they were right outside Stark Tower. Gwen turned so she was looking out the front windows of the aircraft and saw that firefighters and police officers were surrounding the building. Many civillians were trying to get past the barricade that was created to keep people out. The smart civillians were making their way _away_ from the tower.

The door of the aircraft opened and some of the police officers cranned their necks to see who was inside. Gwen and the others climbed out, looking up at the building.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the area," said one of the police officers.

"You're serioulsy asking us that?" asked Clint, taking out an arrow and attaching it to the string of his bow.

The policeman finally got a good look at who was all in there. His eyes widened as he recognized Captain America and furrowed his brow at Thor.

"We're going inside," said Steve to the policeman. "Get everyone as far away from here as possible."

"But we've got a bomb squad on their way. They can take care of it."

"Just do it."

The policeman seemed to debate this for a moment. Then he sighed and turned around.

"Let's go people," he shouted, waving his arms around motioning them towards the streets. Many officers looked at him in confusion and refused to move, but once they saw the Avengers standing there, they, too, began to move.

Gwen led everyone into the lobby of the tower where it was completely empty.

"JARVIS!" she called.

There was no answer.

"JARVIS!" she repeated.

There was still no answer. Then Gwen realized what part of the building Loki exploded.

"He destroyed JARVIS's main system," stated Gwen, sighing in exasperation.

"What, so the power's out?" asked Clint.

"No, it just means that JARVIS doesn't have control of the building. I'm sure that Tony will be able to fix it."

"So what do we do now?" asked Natasha.

"We take the stairs," said Steve.

Everyone but Gwen followed him. Instead, she looked at the elevator and began to move towards it.

"I'm going up to the penthouse," she stated.

"No," argued Steve. "You're staying with me."

"Well, either I go up to the penthouse by myself or you come with me. It's your choice."

Steve looked around at the team for a moment. He eventually sighed as he realized that Gwen was going to be stubborn.

"You two," he said, pointing to Natasha and Clint, "take the stairs and try to find the bombs. Disarm them if you can. Thor, look for Loki and the tesseract."

Natasha and Clint both nodded, their weapons at the ready. They then headed off through the door that led to the stairs.

Once everyone was gone except Gwen and Steve, they made their way for the elevator.

"I don't think we should do this," said Steve.

"Just trust me," answered Gwen, using his own words against him.

Steve sighed as he watched Gwen push the top button inside the elevator which would lead them to the penthouse, both of them wondering what they would find up there.


	21. Chapter Twenty One

**First of all, thanks for all the birthday wishes guys! That made me feel all fuzzy inside. I had a great birthday actually. I woke up to find the kitchen decked out in Avengers party decorations and the gift bag sitting on the table. My mom had me open it right away and I found this huge Captain America action figure that talks. Needless to say it was awesome and the rest of my presents were Avengers, Harry Potter and Hunger Games related. **

**So anyway, here we are now. I will be posting another chapter later today because of the short length of this one. And also, I don't want you guys to kill me. **

**miller330: Oh, I think you'll like this chapter...**

**Nagrom Renin: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hopefully you like this chapter. **

**Itsgoose2u: I knooooow Cap is so fustrating. Hopefully this chapter will make you happy :)**

**Arrows the Wolf: Yay! I'm glad you love it.**

**Silentflier: Thank you so much! I'm glad you like Gwen. I'm always so worried about OCs and stuff. I've noticed some spelling errrors as well and I'm sitting here and face-palming myself because of them.**

**BANEHiwatari: Thank you! That's cool you're a sophomore too. However, I take the ACTs (basically the same thing, right?) and my school is like college this and college that so I'm totally freaking out. But thank you for your very nice review :)**

**KiyUzumaki: Thank you!**

**AngelVamp6688: Wee! It _is _the best birthday gift haha. Have fun!**

**firemage23: That's always good to hear, haha! I'm glad you like it. **

**garnet86: Thank you! I'm glad you're asking yourself questions.**

**Lily of the Sun: He's on the aircraft. I didn't really see a reason for him to go into the tower :) **

**Kittyjs123: I know, so many Loki feels haha (my dad said yesterday that no one likes Loki because he's evil. He obviously hasn't been on the internet lately)**

* * *

**C****hapter Twenty-One**

Thor was becoming irritated. Why was it that Loki had to keep doing things like this? Why couldn't he just come home? But then again, that was the problem. Loki no longer had a home. And Thor hated that.

So, as the god searched for the tesseract and his adoptive brother, he wondered what Loki was truly up to. If he wasn't going to destroy the tower, what was the point of placing explosives inside of it? What was his plan.

But Thor did not have an answer to any of his questions. Loki was hurting. That's all he could think about. And apparently to all the other Avengers, that wasn't a legitmate reason to do any of this. Not that Thor was trying to make up an excuse or anything. He just wanted them to understand that Loki wasn't in his right mind.

Thor tightened his grip on Mjolnir as he continued his search. He hoped that Gwen could find Loki. She seemed to have at least a bit of sympathy for him. Maybe she could talk him into giving up all of the chaos he created.

But then again, he could only hope.

* * *

The elevator ride felt like ages to Gwen. There was tension in the air around her and Steve as she realized he was upset with her. She assumed it was only because he cared about her and didn't want her to get hurt, but she still felt slightly guilty for making him feel that way.

The elevator finally opened and Steve stepped out first and held her back as if to make sure there was nothing there. After he deemed it safe, Gwen stepped forward and felt goosebumps rise on her skin. It wasn't that it was cold or something seemed off. Instead, she felt some sort of energy.

"It's here," she said.

Steve turned around. "What is?"

"The tesseract," she answered after a moment of silence.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Guys, the tesseract is in the penthouse," said Steve so that others could hear him through their earpieces.

There was no response.

"Anyone?" asked Steve.

"Loki must've cut our communications," suggested Gwen.

Steve groaned. "Figures."

Gwen let her legs take her to the kitchen. She wasn't sure why she went there, but she felt like she should. For a moment, she wondered if that's where the tesseract was. She walked up to a specific cabinet and opened it.

Inside was the cube.

"I found it," she said quietly, shocked at how she simply knew where it was.

"What?" asked Steve.

"I found it!" she repeated, taking out the cube.

"Be careful!"

Steve rushed over to her and took the tesseract in his hands. He looked slighly disgusted by it as the tesseract had caused so much trouble for him, all the way back to World War II.

"We should take this back to the others," he suggested, walking towards the elevator.

"You go, I'll stay here," said Gwen.

Steve turned around and shook his head. "No, you're coming with me."

"Steve, you really need to listen-"

"No, Gwen, you're not staying here! Loki's obviously nearby and I'm not letting you out of my sight!"

"Why?" she asked, feeling slightly irritated. "I'm capable of defending myself."

"Please, Gwen. I don't want you up here alone."

"Steve, I need you to trust me."

Gwen had never sounded so confident in her life. She stood her ground as Steve slowly approached her.

"I do trust you," he said. "But I don't trust Loki."

"I know. No one does. But you need to trust me."

"Gwen..."

"Listen to me Steve Rogers! Remember when I told you about the doctors experimenting on me? I told you that I trusted you. And then right before you were about to leave, you said that you trusted me, too. I need you to trust me right now. I'll never need you to trust me more for the rest of our lives. I _need_ to stay here. I _need_ to find Loki. I'm the only one that can stop him."

"And what makes you think that?"

"I just know. And I told you, I have a plan."

Steve looked deep in thought for a moment before sighing in defeat. Gwen felt triumphant at his expression which told her that she won and she was going to get to stay.

"Fine," he said, slowly. "I trust you. I don't want you to be up here, but I trust you."

"Thank you."

He stood there awkwardly for a moment, as if unsure of what to do. Then he slowly turned around to begin heading back to the elevator.

Gwen watched as Steve took a step away from her. She wasn't sure what made her do what she did next. It was almost like something in her snapped. Gwen reached out and grabbed into his arm the best she could because of his muscles and turned him around. Once he was facing her, she shifted her weight to the tips of her toes as she reached up and placed her lips upon his.

The kiss wasn't like how some people kissed in movies, specifically the ones based on Nicholas Sparks books, but was instead more gentle and light. There was a split second in which Gwen could tell Steve was surprised, but he quickly kissed her back as though he had been waiting for a chance to do this.

Gwen was the one to pull away, to her surprise, and Steve stared at her, wide-eyed. He composed himself and cleared his throat before moving again.

"Be careful," he said with a small boyish smile.

Gwen smiled back as she watched him back up, not breaking eye contact with her. If only she had done this sooner and not when it was possible she wouldn't make it out of the tower alive.

Out of nowhere, a ticking noise started from above them and Gwen looked up just in time to see a small bomb appear out of nowhere that was attached to the ceiling. She stood in shock and fear as the time on the bomb went down to zero.

"Gwen!"

Suddenly, Gwen felt herself falling back and sliding on the floor just as the bomb went off. She only had just enough time to look back at where she had just stood to see the ceiling fall and crumble down on top of Steve.


	22. Chapter Twenty Two

**Okay guys, so I don't know how much I'll be posting this week. I've got a lot going on with the end of school and all, but I'll try my best. Besides, we're almost to the end!**

**DarkRulerKida: I KNOW Haha**

**Arrows the Wolf: I hope you didn't smash your head on the keyboard haha. Sometimes I love having the power to make people feel this way.**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

"Steve!"

Gwen had never heard such worry and fear in her voice before as she called out to the soldier. She scrambled to her feet and sprinted over the rubble that covered him and should very well be covering her instead.

She pushed as much rubble out of the way as she could which ended up revealing Steve and the upper half of his body.

"Steve, wake up!" she demanded desperately. Even though she was no doctor, she could remember leaning how to find a pulse from health class while in middle school and put two fingers in the proper spot on his neck. Gwen could feel his pulse, though it was slower than it should be and also rather faint. She wasn't sure how a bunch of rubble could do this to a super soldier, but then she noticed a nasty gash on his side which was bleeding very badly. Gwen quickly began moving the rubble covering the lower half of his body. It was like a rush of adrenaline that gave her some sort of newfound strength.

Gwen felt herself panicking, now hoping Steve wouldn't wake up as the gash looked very painful. She had no idea what to do. The elevator was blocked with rubble from the explosion, communications were out and JARVIS was nearly destroyed. She was stuck and if she didn't get help fast, Steve would most likely die from bleeding out. But she knew there was nothing she could do.

That's when she spotted it, sitting on the floor. A device with a big red button.

"Tony, you genius son of a bitch," she muttered under her breath, not caring that she didn't usually swear. Feeling hope at last, Gwen crawled over and pressed the button. She looked out the windows at the night sky and saw the face of Iron Man illuminate it. And it seemed that Tony had been working on some improvements as she could clearly hear "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC playing loudly outside.

But the Gwen remembered that no one knew where Tony was when they left. She felt her hope shatter and prayed that someone would realize what it was and come to help. It wasn't long before the windows shattered before her and Iron Man came flying down and landed in front of her.

"I knew that would be useful one day," said Tony. He looked around. "What happened here?"

"We got Loki'd," answered Gwen, getting up off the ground. "Listen, Steve's hurt badly. You need to get him out of here and to medical attention."

Tony looked around in confusion, his eyes landing on Steve. Gwen quickly searched the ground until she found the tesseract, still glowing blue. She picked it up and gave it to Tony.

"Take this with you," she ordered.

"But what about you?"

"Leave me here. I know what I'm doing."

Tony shook his head. "Gwendolyn..."

"Just do it, Tony!"

After one more moment of hesitation, Tony approached the unconscious Steve and carefully threw him over his shoulder while still holding the tesseract. Tony looked back at Gwen and nodded. She nodded back just as he took off with Steve towards the ground.

"I must say," said a voice behind Gwen after Tony was out of sight, "that was impressive."

She turned around to see none other than Loki standing there, coming out of what seemed to be invisibility.

Gwen didn't say anything as he smirked at her. She wasn't caught by surprise this time. She was prepared. She wasn't going to fall under his control again.

This time she would win.

* * *

Tony landed at the aircraft and set Steve down on a parked taxi nearby.

"He's hurt," said Tony as Bruce came out and looked at Steve's injuries. "Where are the others?"

"Here," came Natasha's voice. She walked up to them with Clint behind her. "We heard another explosion and weren't sure where in the building it was so we came outside."

"Is that the tesseract?" asked Bruce, looking at the cube in Tony's hand.

"Yeah," answered Tony. "Gwendolyn found it up there."

"Damn," said Clint, looking at Steve's injuries. "What happened to Rogers?"

"I found him and Gwendolyn in the penthouse, along with the tesseract. That's where the explosion was."

"Then where's Gwendolyn?" asked Bruce.

"She told me to leave her there."

"And so you left her?" asked Clint.

"I trust her," said Tony. "We have to give her a chance."

"But she's alone!"

"I know. But we can't keep hiding her forever, can we?"

There was silence as they all thought about Gwen and how she probably wasn't going to get out of the tower alive. Tony hoped that she really did know what she was doing. But, seeing as the last time Tony was alone with Loki in the penthouse, Tony got thrown out the window. He sure hoped that Gwen didn't have to go through that as well, seeing as she didn't have an Iron Man suit to save her. And so Tony watched the top of the tower carefully, not wanting to miss any second of what he could see. If Gwen was thrown out, at least he could fly up and catch her. But until something happened, no one could do anything.

It was all up to Gwen.

Out of nowhere, Thor flew down and landed beside them all.

"The tesseract," he stated, looking at Tony.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we can see what it is Sherlock."

"Give it to me."

"Why should I?" Tony clutched the cube to his chest possessively.

"I have an idea."

"Mind sharing it?"

"Please, Metal Man," pleaded Thor. "I need to stop my brother."

"That's kinda what we're doing here."

"I know how to stop him. But I need the tesseract."

"Just give it to him, Tony," said Bruce, looking up from Steve's unconscious body.

Tony sighed. "Fine, take it."

He tossed the cube over to Thor, who nodded.

"He better not be on Loki's side, now," muttered Tony, staring at the god.

"Guys, look up there," said Natasha.

They all looked up to the top of Stark Tower to see some sort of cloud forming. It looked as though it were a tornado, but with weird lightning strikes coming from it. But they weren't exactly lightning. It was almost like flashes of powerful energy.

"What the hell is she doing up there?" asked Clint as they all watched in amazement.

And that's when Thor shot up into the sky, his hammer forward and the tesseract in his hand.


	23. Chapter Twenty Three

**I honestly couldn't help myself. Since I'm done with this chapter, I HAD to post it.**

**pinapplegoddess: It makes me happy that you feel that way actually (I hope that doesn't sound heartless at all). I'm just glad that you love this story so much. As for a sequel, I am in the process of planning/writing it. I actually have 27 chapters vaguely planned so far and six chapters written. I'm having far too much fun with it.**

**Wolflihood: I'M SORRY sometimes I just can't help myself because I'm evil on the inside. **

**LittleMissMia123: The prepare for the realness muahaha.**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

Gwen eyed Loki with a calm expression. She knew what she was going to do, but first she was going to see if she had to take such measures.

"Why are you doing this, Loki?" she asked.

He laughed. "Why not?"

"Because it's wrong."

"And who has given you the power to tell what is right from wrong?" Loki walked forward, his hands clasped behind his back. "There is no right and wrong. There is only power."

"I don't think power is what you want."

She watched him closely as he walked around her in a circle, stopping behind her. She turned around to see him.

"And what makes you think you know what I want?" he asked.

"I'm just saying that you want something else," she argued.

Loki came to a stop a few feet in front of her, a scowl on his face. "You make yourself sound like you know me. But you don't."

"No, I don't," she agreed. "But I know some things about you."

"Don't take everything Thor says for truth, Gwendolyn Powers."

"Oh really? That's strange seeing as he's the one who said you were adopted."

Loki frowned at her words. It seemed he wasn't expecting this, or at least thought that she wasn't going to try to fight back with words. But that was what Gwendolyn realized. She needed to fight words with words.

"Yeah, that's right Loki," continued Gwen. "Thor told us about that. How you're a - what was it? - a Frost Giant? He said that you always lived in his shadow."

"Thor was always favored," said Loki angrily. "I want respect."

"And how can you get respect if you take over the world?"

"You will _all _kneel to me one day."

"No, we won't. That's what you don't get Loki. You can't just take over a world. We will always fight back."

"Then join me."

Gwen's mouth opened slightly as she felt confusion. "What?"

"Join me, Gwendolyn. You will be spared."

"What about the others?"

"I cannot really say the same for them," answered Loki with a sickening smile. "They are not like you."

"How are they not like me?"

"You are different."

"We're all different."

"And is that why you all have your little group? Because you are all different?"

"Please, Loki. You can stop this."

"There is no stopping this," he sneered. "I am far beyond stopping."

"Don't be so sure about that," said Gwen. In that moment, she attempted something drastic. She wasn't sure if it was going to work, but she had to try. Focusing as hard as she could, she opened her shield so that it completely and temporarily dissolved. She then summoned all the energy she could around her and could feel her whole body tingling. With as much concentration as she could, Gwen controlled the energy that was creeping towards her and made it move until the energy was in a visible clump at her feet. She pushed it out into the air and started to make it circle her and Loki. To all those below, it looked as though some sort of electrical tornado was flying around them at a very fast speed.

Loki looked around, almost amused. He seemed pleased with what she was doing.

"You have been practicing," he stated.

Gwen didn't answer as all of her energy and concentration was put into the shield cloud around them.

"But unfortunately," continued Loki, "everything has consequences."

Gwen's skin began to pale and the skin around her eyes turned dark.

"You are still the same, confused lady I met all those months ago."

The lines reappeared in Gwen's face, the darkest they had ever been. Her face looked as though it was breaking into pieces.

"Yet, here you are as if you were a different person."

The lines extended down onto her neck and the rest of her body like she was made of glass.

"I wonder what changed that. Was it the soldier?"

Gwen felt her heart pick up its pace at the mention of Steve.

"'Tis a shame, really. I do not understand how he could look at you after what you did."

Gwen's breath caught in her throat the the energy cloud shield around them grew more intense. Loki smiled.

"How could someone love a monster like you?" mocked Loki. "How could someone look at a monster like you?"

Gwen's lips began to pale as well.

"You do not belong with them, Gwendolyn. You belong in a world where monsters are not feared."

Gwen knew what he was doing. He was trying to provoke her. It was far too obvious now, seeing as he was the one to make her have the accident. And with all the energy she was using around them, it only figured that he'd try to make her go

And so Gwen decided to try something new. She drew energy from what she thought could be the tesseract and watched as the energy cloud turned blue like the cube. Her green eyes changed to the same color, but she was still in control of herself.

"Look at this," said Loki, putting out his arms. "You have grown so much stronger. Strong enough to take out the city."

Loki looked Gwen in the eye.

"Say goodbye to your city, Gwendolyn Powers."

_"ENOUGH!"_

Out of nowhere, a figure came through the cloud. Gwen saw that it was Thor. He had both arms extended, his hammer in one and the tesseract in the other. It seemed by using the tesseract, he was able to get through the cloud without damaging himself.

"The mighty Thor!" mocked Loki, a smirk on his lips. "It is a pleasure to see you once more."

"Loki!" yelled Thor. "I grow tired of this!"

Loki laughed. "You make it sound like I should care."

"I'm ending this now!"

"You cannot stop me!"

"Loki, give this up! I am warning you!"

"Go ahead then!" Loki shouted. Gwen thought she saw a tear escape Loki's right eye and travel down his face.

"I do not wish to harm you, brother!"

"I am not your brother!" shouted Loki. "I never was nor will I be!"

"Stop this madness-"

"Fine! Take me back to Asgard and be the wonderful son you always are! The mighty Thor triumphs once again!"

"Loki," continued Thor, his voice quieter. "What has happened to you? What has happened to the man I once knew?"

"He died," answered Loki. "Now there is me."

With that, Loki extended his right arm and conjured a spear. He pointed it at Thor.

"This is your last chance!" said Thor, taking what seemed to be a battle stance.

"And I am not taking it!"

"Loki, do not do it!"

Gwen hadn't noticed how Loki was debating whether to shoot the spear at Thor or her. Then Loki frowned.

"You think you can change me," said Loki. "But I cannot be changed."

"I can help you, brother!"

Loki shook his head. "I cannot be helped either."

Suddenly, Thor yelled and shot forward and hit Loki with Mjolnir. Thor managed to grab Loki, who was in a state of confusion, and the two shot forward some more.

And the last thing Gwen saw before falling unconscious was the cloud around her disappearing and a portal opening, ripping through the night sky. She could see what seemed to be a palace on the other side of the portal and once Thor and Loki had gone through it, it disappeared.

And then everything went black.


	24. Chapter Twenty Four

**To celebrate having taken my last final, here's a chapter!**

**Arrows the Wolf: I'm terribly sorry!**

**Wolflihood: Tis my speciality.**

**LittleMissMia123: What happens if it gets more real/unreal?**

**Justasmalltowngirl2713: I love Steve too haha. And I love you too. And thanks!**

**tribute14: Cliffhangers are always the worst.**

**MysticRyter: Haha I had them all written out and was like, why not? And thanks!**

**Itsgoose2u: I wonder how people were to react if I killed them. Hmm...**

**miller330: Thank you!**

**Kittyjs123: You want to give him a hug now? Wait until you've read this chapter.**

**firemage23: I'm glad you loved the "Loki'd." I honestly couldn't help myself haha. **

**O.O LOLz: You must really love it if you used caps lock!**

**Jayc Black: I hope that it is the good form of dying.**

**evelyn: Why, thank you!**

**AngelVamp6688: Haha thanks. I had a HP birthday party last year. Twas awesome. **

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

Thor and Loki found themselves tumbling along on a hard ground once they went through the tesseract's portal. Loki groaned as he opened his eyes. He was laying on his back and looking up towards the sky. And the sky was familiar.

They were in Asgard.

"Thor, you idiot!" yelled Loki, getting onto his knees. "Look at what you've done!"

Thor didn't answer and answer and was looking around in what almost seemed to be confusion.

"I was going to fight you!" continued Loki. But Thor still remained quiet. "You always mess things up! Now how am I suppose to get back!"

"Quiet, brother!" hissed Thor, still looking around.

"I am not your brother!"

"Shut it!"

Loki became quiet at Thor's booming an thunderous voice.

"Does nothing seem off to you?" asked Thor.

When Loki thought about it, something did seem off. It was oddly quiet, even for Asgard. When Loki looked around, he could see smoke rising in the difference. He listened closely and realized it wasn't actually quiet. There screams coming from where the smoke was.

Asgard was under attack.

"What has happened?" asked Thor. "We must find father!"

"Over here...my sons..."

Loki whipped his head around to see none other than Odin, laying on the ground, his back against a fallen statue. He was alone. That's when Loki noticed the knife handle protruding from Odin's stomach, the blade inside him.

"Father!" cried Thor as he ran to the All-Father's side. Loki hesitantly and slowly followed, unsure of how to feel. This was the man who raised him. Though he had failed at parenting, this was still the man he had always called his father.

"My...sons..." breathed Odin. It didn't take a healer to figure out that Odin was near Death. If one looked beyond life, they could even see Her, hovering over the king.

"Father, we can get you help-"

"No, Thor," said Odin, cutting off Thor. "Do not waste your time. I know that mine is up."

Odin looked up at Loki who was now standing behind Thor.

"Loki...I need to speak with you," said Odin.

Thor looked back to see Loki and pulled him down to the ground next to Odin when the god of mischief did not move.

"Loki...I must tell you something. I am sorry."

Loki could not hide the shock that appeared on his face.

"I will forever regret the way I treated you. There is nothing I can do to fix my mistakes, but I can tell you this."

Loki still could not find his voice as he watched Odin take short and painful breaths.

"I love you Loki. You are my son. You have always been my son. I do not care what you are or what you have done. You are still Loki, son of Odin. And I am proud of you."

It was silent as Odin drew a great breath.

"I love you Loki, no more and no less than Thor. You are both equal to me."

And then Odin took one more shaky breath and moved no more.

"Father?" asked Thor. "Father?"

At the realization of his father's death, Thor picked up Mjolnir, which had fallen on the ground when they had arrived, and allowed a massive amount of lightning to strike it. Out of his anger and grief, Thor threw the hammer has far and hard as he could.

Loki, however, remained at Odin's side, not believing that the man was now dead. He had never thought Odin could actually die. It just wasn't possible. And to have been by just a silly knife. Loki took a closer look and saw that it was actually coated in some sort of poison. But it certainly wasn't a substance of Asgard.

"Thor!"

Thor turned around to the noise while Loki continued to stare in disbelief at Odin.

Sif, her long black hair pulled back and had a cut on her lip which had dried blood on it, was approaching them, followed by Volstagg, who looked rather hungry, and Hogun, his non-existing smile still non-existant.

"My friends," said Thor, though he certainly did not look happy to see them. "What has happened? Where is Fandral?"

"He was injured," answered Hogun. "He is in the healing room."

"What happened?"

"Asgard was attacked," said Volstagg.

"By what?"

"We are unsure," said Sif. "They were not of Asgard nor any of the nine realms as far as we know."

"Is anyone else hurt?" asked Thor.

"We believe so," answered Volstagg. "But we know not the number dead. We were fighting."

"Thor," said Sif in a quiet voice, pointing at Loki. "Is that-"

"All-Father!" shouted Volstagg suddenly, walking around Loki. "Is he-"

"Dead," finished Loki, his voice unusually high. "He is dead."

There was an awful silence in the air as Sif let a tear escape her right eye. Hogun looked more grim than usual and Volstagg kept opening his mouth to say something, but then closed it after a moment of thought.

"Where is my mother?" asked Thor, his voice cutting through the tension like a knife.

"With the healers," answered Sif in an uncharacteristically quiet voice.

"We must tell her."

The four of them began to move off, but then Thor stopped.

"Loki?" he asked. "You should come with us."

After a moment of hesitation, Loki nodded and slowly got up. He wasn't quite sure how to feel.

Immediately he had thought these words were lies. He thought Odin was just trying to stop Loki from doing anymore harm to any of the realms. But then Loki realized that Odin did not possess a silver tongue. Every word that Odin had said to Loki were true. It was as if the king needed to say them as it was his last chance to.

And so as Loki followed Thor, Sif, Volstagg and Hogun, he couldn't help but finally feel a bit of peace. Those words meant more to Loki than anyone would ever know.

And it was all Loki ever needed to hear.

* * *

Steve wasn't quite sure what had happened as he slowly regained consciousness. All he could remember was seeing the bomb, realizing it was going to explode and then looking at Gwen. The only thing that ran through his mind was how he needed to save her, even if he died in her place. She had crept into his heart and he wasn't about to let her die. And so he had lunged to push her away and just as he realized she was safe and he had saved her, everything went black.

But Steve opened his eyes and immediately felt a horrible pain in his side. He lifted up his arm to touch where it hurt and grimaced as he felt the wetness of his own blood.

Even though it hurt, all he could think about was Gwen. He needed to make sure she really was alright. So Steve slowly opened his eyes. All he could see was the night sky and he wondered where he was. He turned his head and saw the aircraft and saw all of the other Avengers with the exception of Thor and Gwen. All of them were looking up with different expressions on their faces.

Steve tried sitting up despite the pain and looked up in the same direction. He could see what was like an electrical cloud at the top of the tower. Steve wondered if this was the work of Gwen. Suddenly, two figures shot out of the cloud and some sort of portal opened. The figures fell through the portal and it closed behind them.

Panicked, Steve tried to get up, thinking that Gwen had been one of them, but stopped as he saw the cloud slowly disappear and another figure began to fall.

Except this one didn't have a portal to fall into.

"Is that Gwen?" asked Natasha, her eyes wide.

Steve's heart was pounding, trying to figure out what to do. He didn't need to think long for Tony shot up in the Iron Man suit and began flying in her direction.

Only for a second did Steve wonder when Tony got there, but his attention went right back to Tony as he caught Gwen. He slowly flew back down, Gwen unconscious in his arms.

Once Tony was back on the ground, Steve ignored the pain and got up off the taxi cab he was on. He stumbled over to Tony who placed Gwen on a nearby car.

"Rogers," said Bruce who seemed to be the first one to realize he was awake, "you shouldn't be up."

He ignored the doctor and approached Gwen.

"She's not breathing," Steve observed, feeling sick to his stomach. "She's not breathing!"

Clint and Natasha pulled Steve back as Tony and and Bruce began to work on her. Steve didn't know what they were doing, but he wanted to be next to Gwen. He needed her to be alright.

Unfortunately, Steve was far too weak to fight against the two assassins and allowed them to bring him into the aircraft. They sat him down in a seat and strapped him in to keep him from leaving. Natasha brought over what seemed to be Bruce's extra clothes just in case he had to hulk-out and wrapped them around Steve's wound as there were no bandages to absorb the blood.

Steve watched as Tony finally carried Gwen inside the aircraft and he thought he was actually going to throw up. He couldn't lose Gwen. He had already lost too much. If he lost Gwen, he didn't know what he'd do.

"She's breathing," said Tony as if reading Steve's mind.

Steve nodded, feeling relief, but still feeling nauseous.

He watched as all the others came aboard, Bruce holding what seemed to be batteries and other electronical devices. Natasha and Clint got back in the pilot and co-pilot seats while Bruce went back to Gwen who was now laying on a stretcher like bed that was connected to the wall of the aircraft.

Steve felt Tony sit down beside him. His mask was up and his face showed that rare seriousness that made people rethink his maturity level.

"She'll be fine," said Tony to Steve. "She used more energy than she could handle."

Steve nodded, unable to make words. His voice wouldn't let him. Gwen was going to be okay. He kept repeating this in his head until unconsciousness took him once more.

* * *

Tony had never seen Steve look the way he had when they all saw Gwen. It was in that moment that Tony knew Steve would do anything for Gwen, which explained why Steve was the one injured first. It wasn't that this was a bad thing of course. Tony thought it was great. Gwen needed someone like that. In truth, Tony had always been worried about Gwen. He worried that she'd never want to get close to anyone, other than him and Pepper, but now it seemed she had found someone she could trust.

And it made Tony happy.

Of course, he wasn't going to admit it out loud.

Tony got up once he saw that Steve was not awake and walked over to Gwen. She still had very little color in her face, but it wasn't as pale as it had been before they had forcefully given her the energy and power out of several electronic devices.

He really wanted to know what had happened up there and why Thor and Loki had been thrown off and into a portal, but Tony knew he wasn't going to get his answers just yet. But as far as he could tell, it was over.

And Tony had just the idea of how to celebrate.


	25. Chapter Twenty Five

**Just as a side note, this is NOT the last chapter. I still have an epilogue. However, I might just be able to post it later today. I'm not entirely sure yet. **

**Jayc Black: Well that's good. And thanks!**

**LittleMissMia123: I'M SORRY I BROKE YOUR BRAIN. Odin had to die though. Otherwise Loki would become very OOC.**

**Jimmy 144: Thank you! That's good to hear.**

**MysticRyter: Haha Tony can never be trusted with a celebration.**

**Arrows the Wolf: Tony's always good at bring the party haha. And thanks for your feedback on killing Odin. I was a bit nervous about it actually, but due to the way the sequel is, he had to die.**

**Itsgoose2u: I would hate to be responsible for people exploding haha.**

**Dr Pantalons: Thank you so much!**

**Ms. Smooth Criminal: Wowzer! Thank you! Your review meant so much, especially because it's normally me leaving reviews on stories, telling the author that I stayed up really late reading the story. Thank you!**

**garnet86: Thank you! I'm glad that was a surprise.**

**miller330: Wow, thank you! It's good to hear you thought that way. **

**AngelVamp6688: Haha, they SHOULD go to Disney World. That'd be a great parody story. And wow, you teared up? I must be getting better at writing.**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

Gwen stared at herself in the mirror, looking at someone who didn't look like her. Granted her reflection only looked different because she was in a dress, her blonde curls were not a mess and she was wearing make-up, she still looked like a different person.

Gwen was wearing a plum colored sleeveless dress that went down to her mid-thigh. She was wearing black nylons as Gwen was uncomfortable with the rather short length of the dress. Pepper had told her that this was not too much of a formal party, but they were still wearing dresses anyway. It was still a party at Stark - or now the Avengers as Tony now liked to call it - Tower after all.

Gwen smoothed out the front of her dress and turned herself to the left and right to see herself in different views and angles. Needless to say she was incredibly nervous.

The party was a celebration of getting rid of Loki for the second time. Granted no one knew what happened to Loki as well as Thor and the tesseract, but Tony insisted on a party. Gwen wasn't exactly sure why though. But all she knew was that this was going to be her first date with Steve.

When Gwen had woken up three days after falling from Avengers Tower, she was greeted by Steve who immediately kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her. She, of course, got butterflies and loved it, but couldn't help but wonder why he was acting like she almost died.

Then she learned she actually _did_ almost die.

She allowed Steve to hold her for a while, just happy that it was now clear to both of them that they had feelings for each other.

Gwen had been worried about Steve when she saw the bandages on his side and asked him how his cut was doing. He, of course, told her he was alright and then suddenly blurted out his question of asking her to the party.

And so now, two days after waking up and back to her normal state, Gwen was incredibly nervous.

"Gwendolyn!" exclaimed Pepper who entered the room Gwen was getting ready in inside the tower. "You look so beautiful!"

Gwen smiled brightly as she turned around. Pepper was wearing a sleeveless and straight green dress. She wore high heels which made even Gwen's feet feel uncomfortable from just looking at them although she was wearing flats.

"Thanks," answered Gwen. "You look really nice too."

"Steve is just going to love it," said Pepper.

Gwen blushed insanely at this comment and played with the hem of her dress.

Pepper smiled. "Don't worry, I'm sure Steve is more nervous than you are."

* * *

It was true. Steve was much more nervous than Gwen was as this was not only his first date with Gwen, but his first real and official date ever seeing as he was never good with women.

Tony had gotten him a tux to wear along with a skinny black tie and a white button down shirt. Steve looked at himself in the mirror of the room his was in with Tony, Bruce and Clint, all of whom were joking around and laughing.

Steve suddenly felt a pat on his back and then Tony came into view in the mirror.

"Looking sharp, old man," said Tony.

Steve remained silent.

"Listen, I know you're nervous, but just be yourself. Gwenie loves your gentlemanness."

"She does?"

"I'm only guessing. I'm just glad you finally asked her on a date. If you hadn't by now, I was going to take action."

"Stark, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that this whole shindig was my plot to get you and Gwen together. Seeing as you finally got the courage to ask her out, it worked. But really I was planning on you both coming alone."

"And then what were you going to do?"

"I was going to have JARVIS play a slow song and then dance with her where you'd see us. Then you'd get jealous and cut in and then I'd see where it went from there."

"You're unbelievable."

"Thank you, I take that as a compliment."

Steve scowled as he turned back to the mirror.

* * *

When the party began, Gwen was taken by Pepper to meet Natasha by the elevator. The redhead was wearing a skin tight black dress which looked uncomfortable to Gwen. The three ladies stepped into the elevator as it took them up to the penthouse where the party was being held.

"How many people did Tony invite?" asked Gwen.

"A couple," answered Pepper.

"When she says a couple, she means most of New England," joked Natasha.

Gwen licked her lips nervously. She wasn't a good dancer and was terrified of the idea of being in front of hundreds of people.

Fortunately when the silver doors slid open, Gwen only saw dozens of people. Still, it was more than she expected.

"Hey, look at you!" exclaimed Tony, walking over to her and wearing a black suit.

"Don't make people look at me!" she hissed at him, looking around nervously.

Tony laughed. "You look gorgeous."

"Thanks. You don't look so bad yourself."

Tony gave her a quick hug and them went over to Pepper, leaving Gwen all alone as Natasha had gone off to find Clint. She moved forward slowly, unsure of where she should go.

People seemed to move to what was considered the dance floor. That's when she finally saw Steve who seemed to be looking for her. Gwen's heart started to race and her legs felt like jello as she began to approach him.

Steve's eyes finally landed on her and his face visibly lit up. His blue eyes were shining and his wide grin was contagious. He walked over to Gwen and towered over her.

"You look really nice," he said, suddenly appearing to be nervous.

Gwen blushed. "Same to you."

"Excuse me!" called Tony. He was clinking a utensil on the glass of wine he now held. "I'd like to make a toast."

Everyone's attention turned to Tony.

"First of all, I would like to humbly thank all the people in here that helped get rid of Bullwinkle-"

"_Loki_," corrected Pepper.

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, those people are myself, Captain Steve Rogers, Agent Natasha Romanoff, Agent Clint Barton and Doctor Bruce Banner. And of course Thor, but we dont' know what happened to the big guy."

There was applause until Tony waved his hands to make it stop.

"But most of all, we couldn't have done anything without the help of Agent Gwendolyn Powers."

At this point, Tony looked right at her and all of the others who didn't know who she was turned to look at her.

"I believe I speak for everyone when I say that she not only has a position in SHIELD, but she also has a position in the Avengers. Now where's the shawarma?"

A large applause rang throughout the penthouse. Gwen was blushing furiously at all of the attention she was getting.

Steve cleared his throat once the clapping stopped and turned back to Gwen. "Would you like to dance?"

"Of course, Captain."

Gwen took his outstretched hand as he led her to the large group of people in the center of the penthouse.

The two of them stepped close to each other as a slow song began to play. Gwen put one hand on Steve's shoulder as he put one hand on her waist. Their free hands were clasped together and in the air as they began to move around like all the others.

"Y'know," said Steve, "I have no idea how to dance."

"Neither do I," answered Gwen, feeling better about her lack of dancing ability. "So let's just shuffle awkwardly together."

Steve smiled and laughed as the two of them focused on not stepping on each other's feet.

"You actually look really beautiful," said Steve seriously.

Gwen tried to control the heat rising in her neck and face. "And you look very handsome."

"I was really nervous about this."

"So was I."

The two smiled at each other again. Nothing seemed better in that moment as continued to shuffle awkwardly, not caring if anyone thought they looked weird. It didn't matter to them if they were talking to each other or not right then. All that mattered was that they were together and certainly not dead as Gwen had thought Steve was and Steve had thought Gwen was.

Steve suddenly leaned down slowly and kissed her softly. Gwen was kissing him back in an instant as she let go of his hand and linked her arms around his neck. Steve moved his now free hand to her waist and then put his hands on her lower back, pulling her in close. The two hadn't even realized they stopped moving and the song had ended. It was a moment Gwen wished she could stay in forever.

Maybe coming to New York hadn't been such a bad thing after all.


	26. Epilogue

**Hey, would you look at that. It's the EPILOGUE. The reason this is so short is because if you were to think of this story as a Marvel movie, this would be the after the credits scene and those aren't very long. **

**Sorry I didn't post it yesterday. The errands I ran with my mom ended up going longer than I thought it would.**

**Jayc Black: Thank you very much!**

**Arrows the Wolf: Haha I'm glad you thought that way.**

**garnet86: Thank you! And yes, yes they did :)**

**DarkRulerKida: Haha, I love when I find a fic that makes me do that.**

**Justasmalltowngirl2713: Wow, thank you! This is strange as I love your fic more than mine haha. Thank you so much!**

**Itsgoose2u: I hope this epilogue does not disappoint then!**

**MysticRyter: Your review made me think of the first Iron Man film with the whole "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart" thing. I suppose he does, he just doesn't know it himself haha.**

**miller330: Thank you! I can't wait for it either!**

**Jimmy 144: Thank you so much!**

**Rory: Thank you thank you thank you! I'm actually surprised at the amount of reviews I have haha. Thank you so much!**

* * *

**Epilogue**

In what could be considered the middle of nothing in the universe, a Titan sat upon a throne made of rock. His vibrant purple eyes searched the universe, wondering why Loki was taking so long to return to him.

"Titan," said a familiar voice in front of him, coming up the floating rock steps.

The Titan looked down at the god who had dark hair and pale skin. But his face wasn't as hardened now. The Titan was aware why, but still couldn't quite grasp the reason.

"You do not have the tesseract," said the Titan in a cold and deep voice.

"Correct," answered Loki confidently. "I no longer wish to work for you."

The Titan smiled with amusement. "What had changed you, Loki? You are not the god I made a deal with."

"I have changed."

"And who has changed you?"

"I forced myself to see reason."

The Titan let out a loud laugh that made all the guards around him flinch. However, Loki remained unfazed.

"Your silver tongue cannot deceive me, god of lies," said the Titan. "_I_ am the one who deceived my way into Asgard after all."

Loki's jaw dropped slightly. "It was you?"

"Of course it was me, puny god. I am the one who single handedly killed Odin All-Father. I have thrown Asgard into chaos."

Loki's eyes widened. "You will pay for what you have done."

The Titan laughed again. "Last time I checked, you had no love towards Odin."

"Like I said, I have changed."

"As much as you amuse me, you are of no use to me anymore."

"Excuse me?" asked Loki, blinking in confusion.

"Get rid of him," the Titan commanded his guards with a wave of his hand in Loki's direction.

Just as the guards pointed their scepters at Loki and fired, Loki disappeared like a hologram. The guards looked at the Titan, unsure of what he'd do. But he was smiling again.

"He truly is a master of magic," observed the Titan. "Get me the Gauntlet."

One of the guards approached him with a large Gauntlet made of gold. It had several holes in it where its gems were to be, but were unfortunately missing. The guard slid the Gauntlet onto the Titan's arm, who smiled madly.

And in that moment, Thanos the Mad Titan became the universe's biggest threat.

* * *

**So if you haven't smelled a sequel by now, you might want to get your nose checked out. Yes, Gwen's story will continue. I just love writing her so much that I want to continue (as I can tell many of you do as well). **

**First of all, thank you to all of those who have reviewed, favorited and alerted. I'm still shocked at the response I've gotten to this story and it means a lot. I'm glad you're enjoying it. **

**Second, the sequel to this story will be called "Energies." I don't know if you all want me to post an AN as a chapter to alert you all when the first chapter is posted or not. I might just do it anyway.**

**And lastly, I will see you all in the next installment!**

**-AccioVoldemortsNose**


	27. Energies

**I would just like to say that the first chapter of "Energies" is now up!**


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